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YET IT WAS A VERY SOBER TIME) ON THE WHOLE. 













THEIR CLUB AND OURS 


BY - 

JOHN PRESTON TRUE 
r W 


WITH THIR TY-EIGHT ILL US TRA TIONS 



AUG 31 1881 

No. * 

WASHIM®^ 


BOSTON 

D. LOTHROP AND COMPANY 

32 FRANKLIN STREET 


Copyright, 1883. 

D. Lothrop & Company. 


/z-3f/s T' 


CONTENTS 


Chap. 

I. 

In the old Mill . 





Page. 

• 7 

II. 

Simmering down . 






27 

III. 

Their Club . 






45 

IV. 

Captors and Captives 






62 

V. 

All on a Saturday 






84 

VI. 

Celebrating . 






101 

VII. 

In Shadow . 






121 

VIII. 

The Mullein Spear . 






131 

IX. 

In Time of War . 






144 

X. 

“They say” . 






166 

XI. 

At Lisle Tond 






179 

XII. 

The Sugar Thieves 






190 

XIII. 

The Fate of the Captives 





201 











































































* 




* 






















1 











































LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Yet it was a very sorry Time, on the Whole ... 2 

A Boy’s Paradise 9 

A good Joke on Fred 15 

Would no One ever come? 21 

Frying the Brook Trout 31 

Hoisting the Red Lantern ....... 39 

We were asleep . 43 

Tap-tap-tap . . .47 

The thrice hallowed Dustpan ...... 51 

A Fiji War Dance? oh, no! 37 

A four-posted, canopied Bedstead 65 

It creaks 71 

With a sudden Dart we went down . . . . -75 

A Zethel Twilight 85 

Thinking busily of Nothing 87 

“ How queer the Water gurgles ” 97 

Katie wishes to be considered 103 

On the Island 

Suddenly came the long, sharp Craft of the Collegians . 117 

At the old Boathouse 123 

Under the Honeysuckles 127 

The thunder Storm 129 

Fred has an Idea 135 


viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

At a Target 137 

Hector runs like a scatted Cat 139 

Down through the Stormers fell the Acharians . . . 151 

Achates arrives on a Hurdle 159 

The victorious Flight of Achates 163 

Heroic Achates, Conqueror of the great Ajax ! . . . 167 

Susie sprang up in Confusion 17 1 

Hi! Fred, Bert, Charlie, come over here! .... 175 

On the Way to the Pond 18 1 

Sympathy 186 

A Turnout 193 

A Test of Bravery . 197 

Bert improvises a Coaster 203 

Pelatiah is not to be consoled 207 

A last View of the old Mill 209 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


CHAPTER I. 

IN THE OLD MILL. 

LONG, low room, lighted by half a dozen 



JTx. broad windows, through which the light was 
stealing betwixt the drops of a hard April shower. 

Over the fireplace, in which a light blaze was 
leaping up around the logs of rock maple and pine, 
hung a fly-rod, book and creel. In one corner stood 
a tall clock of our grandfathers’ days, the works 
of which had long since been converted into various 
and curious models of impossible machines, and 
through whose half-open door came a twinkle of 
steel barrels and polished bows ; while the walls 
of the room were covered with evergreens, wasps’ 
nests, skins, hawks’ wings, and other treasures dear 
to the average boy’s heart. 

At a window a boy of seventeen was writing at 


7 


8 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


a desk. At the pld table another was putting the 
finishing touches to a charcoal sketch. Two more 
boys were at work at a couple of lathes in a 
corner, run by a tremendous water-wheel, whose 
thundering roar shook the old building with quiver 
and creak. The last member of the quintet stood idly 
leaning against a window-seat, watching in a fit of 
happy listlessness the furious gusts of rain as they 
swept down the long slope and up the roughened water 
of the stream until lost in the windings of the wood. 

The wild scene was worth looking at. The stream 
below, black with wind, seemed to flow backward 
through the tall, ghostly birches that swayed and 
writhed in the gale ; while the narrow canal that led 
from the lake along the bluff, danced with a con- 
tinuous shower of pearls that leaped in confusion 
over the grass and through the old apple-trees that 
overgrew it; and the rotting flume underneath the 
window was veiled in mist from the jetting water 
that burst from every crack, worm-hole and nail 
along its course to fall in spray upon the rocks 
below, while the hoarse mutter of the dam came up 
between the gusts. 

Within the old mill, in the ancient counting-room, 
a look of cosy comfort prevailed that needed no 
contrast of the weather. It beamed up benignantly 


BOY’S PARADISE 



t 


vO 









from the rickety rocking-chair that squeaked along- 
side the lazy length of the canvas-covered lounge, 
and smiled all over the chip-covered floor. A 
genuine boy’s paradise the old counting-room was, 
where we could make plenty of noise, and whittle 
all day — two necessities for paradise, to our minds. 

This was the way of it : The mill had once on a 
time been devoted to wool. The owner thereof, 
making an incursion into the stock-market, came 
back shorn, made a change in the machinery, turned 
out spool-timber, got involved, forged a note, and 
went West. 

Meantime the mill had been seized by the injured 
party, who knew nothing of the business, and finally 
abandoned it. Some months before our story opens, 
a few of us boys obtained permission to fit up the old 
counting-room for a club-house and work-shop. 

Our club had no especial organization. That 
Jack, as chief, must be obeyed at all times, was the 
principal rule, and it was religiously kept; while a 
few others relating to harmony and order, and a 
complete code of signals varying from a simple 
“ Hello ! ” to a call for help, executed on small double 
whistles, completed the law. 

This code, by the way, was the source of great 
mystification and envy to those unfortunates who 


12 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


did not belong to the organization, and in the old 
academy — everything is old in Zethel — there were 
a hundred or so of boys from the neighboring towns, 
with half as many girls. 

“ Jack ! ” 

“Yes!” said the chief, still eyeing his sketch 
critically. 

“ If this rain holds we can’t go up Sunday River 
fishing next week.” 

“ I didn’t know that we were going,” answered Jack. 

“ Why, yes, some of us were thinking of it ; ” 
and turning to the window again, Bert drummed 
lazily against the pane. 

“’Twon’t pay you!” said Jack, putting in a tall 
poplar with one dextrous sweep of the coal. 

“ What’s the reason ? ” demanded Bert. 

“ It takes a rap at his skill as a fisherman to stir 
Bert up!” laughed Jack, with a sly glance at the 
rest of us. “ Keep cool, my jewel, I wasn’t hitting 
at that; but the snow-water isn’t out of the river 
yet, and there isn’t a trout higher than the mouth. 
They are all down in the Androscoggin. These 
mountain streams are as cold as ice long after the 
lowlands are thawed out.” 

“ But, Jack, you and Fred went as early last year, 


IN THE OLD MILL. 


13 


and you brought home a whole load,” argued Bert. 

Jack glanced over at me. I knew of what he was 
thinking, and laughed back. 

“ What is it ? ” demanded Bert, looking suspiciously 
from one to the other. 

“ Oh, nothing, only a little joke that happened on 
that trip ; shall I tell, Fred ? ” 

“ I’m willing.” 

“ Well, you know uncle Luther Hardhead, don’t 
you ? He’s the best fisherman in that district, and 
all the natives swear by him. We put up our team 
at his house, and some of them advised us not to go 
up the East Branch, as uncle Luther had been up 
only the day before and had brought back eighty, 
catching all there were there — and, by the way, 
Bert, it was a whole month later than this, for it was 
on Decoration day. 

“ But we didn’t take advice worth a cent, and went 
straight up the East Branch. We caught about tnree 
hundred between us. If you could have seen the 
natives stare as we came staggering along 1 

“ But the joke came afterwards. 

“ It was warm work tugging those heavy baskets 
down the bed of a mountain stream, and Fred, here, 
thought he would take a walk to cool off while the 
horse was being harnessed, and as luck would have 


14 THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 

it, he came on a tremendous snow-bank in a gully, 
within ten rods of the house. 

“It looked so jolly cold that he gave a regular 
war-whoop, and broke for it on a run and plunged in. 
He had floundered about half way across, singing 
away at the top of his voice, when all at once he 
gave a yell, and, throwing up his hands, disappeared. 

“ I made my way after, and gazed downward into 
a queer-looking hole. And lo ! there was Master 
Fred in the bottom of the gully, with a leg of mutton 
on one side, and half a beef on the other, a pile of 
dressed fowls under him, and the most dumbfounded 
look on his face you ever saw- He had gone through 
the roof of uncle Luther’s ice-house into his larder, 
and right in front of him was the old gentleman him- 
self, steelyards in hand, staring with all his eyes. 

“ Wasn’t that a joke on our worthy scribe, now ? ” 

A shout of laughter went up that made the room 
echo, and drowned the rattle of the machinery. A 
fierce gust of rain burst against the windows during 
the lull that followed. Jack arose and looked out : 

“ We’re booked for a freshet, sure ; and the flush- 
boards are on the dam. Who's going to take ’em 
off?” 

“ Oh, let ’em stay ! ” drawled Bert with a look 
of dismay at the driving rain. 






IN THE OLD MILL. 


J 7 


“ Bert’s getting constitutionally tired again,” laughed 
Tom from his lathe. 

“ He needs the exercise — better send him, Jack.” 

“ See here, you keep quiet Tom Wylie ! ” bristled 
Bert. But Charlie Winter interposed. He was often 
the peacemaker between them, for Tom was a born 
tease, and Bert was undeniably “ constitutionally tired.” 

“I took them off last night, Jack; we don’t need 
any — there is water enough for all our turning 
through the summer.” 

“ All right,” said Jack ; “ and now come over here, 
all of you, for I’ve an idea ; and Tom, do stop that 
thundering lathe a minute ! It makes such a row 
along with the wheel and the storm, I can’t hear my- 
self think ! ” 

Jack had a good many ideas, generally; and we 
flocked over to his table at once. He regarded us, 
one and all, with a look of solemn gravity. 

“ Boys,” said he at last, “ have you the least notion 
what day it is ? ” 

“ Saturday, to be sure ! did you call me clear over 
here to ask that ? ” demanded Tom, with a wishful 
look at the unfinished bat upon the lathe. 

“Yes; and in three days more it will be May-day.” 

We looked at each other in silence. A smile 
finally spread over one face after another. 


l8 THEIR CLUB AND OUR,S. 

“ And how many of you have made due prepara- 
tion in the matter of tissue-paper?” asked Jack, 
smiling half contemptuously at our discomfiture. 

We looked at each other again. None of us had ; 
we had forgotten all about it. 

“ And so, probably, the girls have bought up every 
inch by this time J ” continued Jack. 

“ Did you mean to hang Katie Powers one this 
year, Jack ? ” asked Tom. No lamb could have 
bleated plaintively with a more innocent face. 

A convulsive twitch was visible in Jack’s cheek 
and throat. His very ears reddened. 

“Poor Jack!” said Tom, looking around at us 
commiseratingly, with his right eye meekly closed. 
“ He was bulletined last year, did some one say, or 
did I dream it ? And he hasn’t even yet forgiven 
Katie for being able to run faster than — Great 
Scott ! ” Tom leaped a foot into the air. “ Charlie 
Winter, if I catch you ! ” 

“I was only trying my new rod, Tom,” said Char- 
lie, calmly, as he darted around the table ; “ I just 
wanted to hit that fly on your ear. I suspect I 
missed him.” 

“ I suspect you did ! ” said Tom feeling of the ear 
in question as he dashed after him, till Charlie, find- 
ing if getting too hot for him in such narrow quarters, 


IN THE OLD MILL. 


*9 


dashed suddenly through the door into the outer mill. 

Around the old carding-machines, over the rollers, 
through the tangle of belts, he ran, dodging swiftly 
from post to pillar, and from pillar to post again ; 
always just ready to be caught, only when Tom 
thought his hand was on him, he wasn’t there. 

But Tom was not the one to give up first, and 
Charlie soon began to tire. Catching up a gunny- 
bag he flung it behind him, and as Tom plunged 
headlong over it into a pile of shavings, he darted 
into the wheel-house, intending to cross the flume 
and draw the plank after him, when he would be safe 
from anything short of a ten-foot pole. 

But alas for him ! 

An old belting lay upon the floor. His feet 
caught — a trip — a stumble forward — a vain endeavor 
to grasp a pillar — then down he plunged headlong 
into the great misty dashing flume, within ten feet of 
the roaring wheel. . He did not even cry out, it was 
so sudden ! 

But a great gasp broke from Tom’s lips. He had 
regained his feet, and had seen it all. Like a flash 
he was at the side of the flume. Leaning over, he. 
caught Charlie by the collar as he was swept downward 
by the rushing water, and, twining his own legs 
around a stanchion, shouted for help. How strangely 


20 : 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


weak it sounded amid the savage seethe of the 
hollow flume, and the harsh rattle of the shafting ! 

“ Catch hold of the side, Charlie ! * Catch hold ! ” 
he cried. 

It was too high up ; nor could Tom, wiry as he was, 
raise him far enough : the rush of *the leaping water 
down the steep incline was far too fierce. Three 
times he tried, and failed. 

Again he shouted, sending forth the whole 
strength of his voice. He felt his hold slipping from 
the stanchion* He felt he was being slowly sucked 
down — down — nearer and nearer, till the bubbled 
foam leaped over his hands and dashed his face ! 

Charlie felt it too ! 

Once in, and Tom could never hope to come out. 
For a moment Charlie clung to him, and a shudder 
crept over him. He was afraid to die ! He looked 
up once more into the white face of his dearest 
friend. 

“ Let go, Tom,” he said steadily. “ One is enough 
— let go, old fellow — and good-by!” 

Poor Tom ! He shrieked again. Would no one 
ever come ? 

“Let go, Tom ! ” said Charlie once more, and try- 
ing to release himself. 

“ I won’t ! ” came grimly from the clinched teeth. 


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IN THE OLD MILL. 


2 3 


And now all the old Saxon grit in the boy’s soul 
awoke from its. long slumber through his chain of 
ancestors. Not Hereward himself ever threw his 
spirit into his mighty arm with a mightier force and 
determination than Tom Wylie in this last battle for 
his friend. 

His muscles seemed to turn to steel wire. The 
veins in his forehead swelled, his eyes glittered, a 
thread of foam came out between his set teeth. 
Then his mind began to wander under the strain, 
and strange thoughts shot flashing across his brain, 
and flickering .points of light gleamed here and 
there before his eyes. But not a finger quivered. 
He slipped no more. 

Something fell from his pocket, and dangled 
against his hands from a tiny chain. It was the 
club call. Tom’s eyes rested upon it mechanically 
for a moment. Then a glimmer of hope leaped into 
his face. 

“ Charlie ! ” he cried, “ I’ll hold you till doomsday, 
and after, too ! Loose one hand — only one — and 
whistle the last call — for the last help — quick ! quick ! ” 

We were still around Jack’s table, only idly inter- 
ested in the chase. It was too common an occur- 
rence to disturb us. 


24 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


Jack was remarking that probably by this time 
Charlie was over the flume with the drawbridge up, 
when high above all the din came three shrill notes, 
quick and sharp, penetrating to the inmost corner of 
the mill ! 

It was like an electric shock. 

What fun we had made of Jack when he proposed 
those signals ; he had laughed, himself, at the absurd- 
ity of the thought that they would ever be needed. 

And now ! 

Without a word, but with a face that flamed white, 
our chief sprang at one bound to the wheel that shut 
the flow of water into the flume, and kicked away the 
board that held it. 

The spokes flew around like lightning with a hoarse 
shriek. 

A thousand thoughts flashed through me as we tore 
across the mill after Jack. How fearfully wide it was ! 

There was no heart in me. Where it had been 
there was a great void, faint, weakening, that seemed 
to swallow up my strength and to absorb it. I 
thought of Charlie — and of his sister ! What would 
she say when he was brought home dripping, slowly^ 
with white face, and widely open eyes, still grasping 
eagerly at nothing? And Tom, whom we all loved in 
spite of his teasing ways ! 


IN THE OLD MILL. 2 C 

/ 

Jack was ahead, straining every nerve ; but I was 
close second. Together we dashed through the 
wheel-house arch with a cry of cheer that rang high 
above all the roar ; and throwing ourselves flat, leaned 
far over and grasped Charlie by the collar ! 

The next instant his whole weight came upon our 
arms ; and had we not been well braced we must all 
have gone, for Tom could do no more. Had the fel- 
lows behind not grasped him in the nick of time he 
himself would have gone down even then ! 

But Charlie was safe in our grasp. We could not 
lift him out against the still savage water. We sim- 
ply held on and waited. It was well for him that it 
had been burly Tom that caught him ! 

The water in the flume , ebbed lower and lower. 
The great wheel below turned more and more slowly, 
and at last, with a long, disappointed creak, stopped 
altogether. We loosed our hold, and Charlie 
dropped back upon the slippery bed, rose, walked 
wearily up the channel to the little ladder, climbed 
it, and sank down upon the floor in a dead faint. 

“ Quick, boys ! carry him in ; that water was fear- 
fully cold, and is freezing the life out of him ! ” 
gasped out Tom. He was sitting up against the 
stanchion and hugging himself for joy. 

We brought him in to the warm, cosy ^^ fipfe croom, 


26 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


stripped him, rubbed and rolled him in a hot army 
blanket, and finally he opened his eyes as placidly as 
though just awaking from a long sleep. 

Then shout after shout rang out until the din ri- 
valled that of the now silent machinery. Even Bert 
caught the contagion, and as Charlie sat up rubbing 
his eyes, that usually apathetic youth started to his 
feet, wrenched Tom’s half-finished bat from the 
chucks of the lathe, and swinging it around his head 
brought it down with a sounding whack across the ta- 
ble as he executed an impromptu war-dance in the 
middle of the floor, shouting out with all the vim of a 
vigorous baritone voice that was just changing, a 
“ Noah’s Ark ” nonsense song that made the windows 
rattle. 

And when he came to the quaint chorus we all 
joined in, and the old refrain swelled and rolled like 
a solemn song of thanksgiving along the low ceiling, 
out of the open door, to lose itself in the echoing, 
empty space of the outer mill : 

“ If you belong to Gideon’s band, 

Then here’s my heart and here’s my hand, 

Looking for a h-o-m-e I ” 




CHAPTER II. 

SIMMERING DOWN. 

N ATURALLY, considerable excitement prevailed 
for some time. Various little accidents had 
befallen us as a club, but none of such dimensions 
and possibilities. 

Bert, of course, had settled down at once. Charlie 
safely deposited, he curled himself up in the window- 
seat near the fire, and retired into his own reflec- 
tions. 

But the rest of us were still gathered around the 
old lounge on which Charlie fay wrapped like a mummy 
in his blanket, his coat, shirt and pants hanging from 
a line in front of the fire, after being well wrung by 
Tom and Jack, while a genial air of steam and wet 
woollen prevailed. 

“ Boys, we certainly must have a grating in front 

of that wheel, ” said Tom. “I believe I lived a year 

27 


28 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


in that five minutes. Say, Charlie, what were you 
thinking about while I held you there?” 

Charlie opened his eyes contentedly upon his 
friend. With a slow smile he closed them again. 
The grateful warmth of the fire glowed in his white, 
chilled face, and lit up the semi-darkness of the room 
in flickering lights and shadows. We were silent, 
grouped around him. How strange it must be to 
have been so near death ! 

“I don’t remember that I thought of anything 
much,” he remarked at length, his eyes still closed. 
“The shock of the icy water half paralyzed me, and 
anyway there wasn’t much time to think. I daresay 
it wasn’t as long to me as it was to you, Tom. I re- 
member I was dreadfully afraid I should pull you 
over, and I remember noticing how funny your coat 
collar looked as it stood up about your ears. I knew 
in a misty way what would happen if you should let 
go. You remember how Dr. Livingstone said he felt 
when a lion once was kicking him around for a play- 
thing? It was very like that until you slipped. I 
woke up then ! O Tom ! ” 

Charlie tossed the blanket aside, and his arms 
were thrown around Tom. 

Poor Tom ! how red his face was as the tears 
gushed from his eyes. But his was not the only red 


SIMMERING DOWN. 


2 9 


face, the only wet eyes. We all knew how the 
slender, gentle fellow had begged Tom to let him go 
down so that he might save himself. Tom busied 
himself getting Charlie back upon the lounge and 
into his blanket again, and we busied ourselves help- 
ing Tom. It was getting rather solemn. I think we 
all, even Tom, welcomed the flying chip which struck 
Jack full in the cheek, from the direction of the 
window seat, impelled by the immobile Bert. I know 
I felt a great sense of relief as we all laughed unduly. 
Charlie’s stare was of such a shocked, dazed nature, 
that I could not help applying my fingers to the sole 
of a bare foot that stuck out invitingly beyond the 
blanket. 

It was the end of the dreamy daze and the solemn 
situation. The good red blood dashed his face. He 
jumped as though touched with a red-hot iron, and 
squirmed and kicked so frantically that he rolled off 
the lounge and carried Tom with him, and if some one 
had not caught them, they would have gone straight 
into the fireplace, “all trussed and ready for roast- 
ing,” as I remarked unfeelingly, for which they both 
rose in their might and chased me incontinently out 
of the room. 

“ I say, fellows ! ” I thrust my head cautiously in 
at the door to remark, “I want to say that if you 


3 ° 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


have decided to keep me out, that it’s time you put the 
trout frying.” 

In the cold outer darkness I rather warmed to the 
idea that I was the sole cook in the crowd. 

The door swung open. They cleared the decks for 
action spontaneously, Charlie got back into his blanket, 
and in a few minutes I was sitting on a box before the fire 
with the great iron dripper sizzling away in front, as I 
laid several white pieces of pork in it for a moment, 
and then daintily dropped in a dozen or so brook 
trout nicely rolled in meal ; while a coffee-pot 
steamed away upon the hearth, rocking back and 
forth upon the raked-down coals. 

The others, in the meantime, set the table with a 
few cracked plates, saucers, tin cups and the like, 
and emptied the baskets. Looking back, I am of 
opinion that the mothers of the club had talked us 
over. Certain it is, there were no grumblings in the 
home pantries over our baskets. 

‘'•You’ll have to take a basket-cover, Tom,” I re- 
marked over my shoulder. “You smashed your last 
plate, you know, and there are not enough to go 
round.” 

Tom rubbed the point of his nose meditatively. 
Picking up a block of wood, he gazed at it a moment, 
balanced it in his hand, and then stepped over to the 






SIMMERING DOWN. 


33 


gate-wheel and started his lathe. Five minutes later 
and he returned with a wooden plate ! It was occa- 
sional feats of this kind which had endeared the 
burly fellow to our souls. 

“When I break that, boys, just let me know!” 

As it was about an inch thick there was no danger 
of it, unless he used it as a missile; and Jack sug- 
gested that instead of washing it he need only run it 
through the lathe again. 

“ Who brought any milk ? ” 

Bert had, and it was in the flume. He looked 
rather uncomfortably out of the rain-streaked win- 
dows, but started off, and by the time he was back, 
supper was on the table and we were ready to fall 
into line. 

For the next twenty minutes not a word was 
spoken; we were too busy. The table was cleared 
right and left. The biscuit followed the trout, the 
cakes followed the buscuit, and the pie followed all 
three. As we finished the last of the solids and 
were discussing a cup of coffee, Jack began where the 
accident had broken in upon him two hours before : 

“Boys, joking aside, of course we will hang May- 
baskets this year, as usual — what do you say to club- 
bing together and having some good square runs ? ” 

“We’d be much more likely to be caught. Five 


34 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


of us never could all get away,” said Bert dubiously. 

“But all the more honor if we do,” I suggested. 

“Oh, that’s all very weir for you, who can run like 
a blue streak ; but all of us are not as fleet as you, 
Fred, and if one does get caught he gets particular 
fits at school the next day. Those girls haven’t an 
atom of mercy on a fellow ! ” and Bert shrugged his 
shoulders as though he had been there. 

“Oh well, Bert! If there were no danger, where 
would be the fun?” said Tom impatiently. “It's the 
risk that makes the life of it, of course! What 
would base-ball be without the chance of a broken 
head sometime, or running the rapids on a saw-log 
if it wouldn’t roll ! A little ridicule won’t hurt us ! ” 

“Ask Jack what he thinks of that — and from 
Katie Powers,” remarked Bert dryly. 

There was a hearty club laugh. Even the annoyed 
chief joined in at last. 

“Well, I’ll own that I did have a lively time of it 
last year,” he said, “and that Katie can outrun me. 
But for all that, if she does not get a basket at her 
door before the week is out, and of an original 
design, I’ll never eat again;” and drinking half his 
coffee in the excitement of the moment, he leaned de- 
fiantly back in his chair, forgetting a chronic weak- 
ness in its hind legs. 


SIMMERING DOWN. 


35 


A sudden ominous creak reminded him of it, and 
his hurried recovery of his balance rather detracted 
from the impressiveness of the declaration of war. 
That was a bad habit which those club-room chairs 
had — they often spoiled impressive periods. 

“Jack,” said Charlie, slowly, from his blanket, 
“Jack, what is the theory of May-baskets, anyway? 
They don’t have ’em out West. I never heard of 
such a thing till I came to New England.” 

Charlie had been with us only since the fall term. 

“Ask me something easier,” laughed Jack. “I 
know more about the practice than the theory, and 
that varies in different sections. In the first place, 
we make them. Certain stereotyped materials, 
tissue-paper and pasteboard — seem to be necessary, 
and there is little change in form from year to year. 
Crimped paper and tails is the leading style — and 
candy. Then, during the first few nights of May it is 
our duty to our country to hang one on some young 
lady’s door-knob,- ring the bell, and — scoot! If we 
are caught we are bulletined next day at school, and 
are lucky if we don’t fill a column or two in the next 
Lyceum paper, woe is me!” 

There was a laugh as Jack shrugged his shoulders. 
Very good-naturedly he did it this time. 

“ it is a point of honor, you see, for the boys not to 


36 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


be captured, and yet to give the girls a fair chance ; 
while, on the other hand, if the girl does not find out 
who hung the basket, she has — well, a standing re- 
proach upon her mantle, and curiosity in her heart; 
so they all do their best — usually. When the last 
of May arrives, it becomes the girls’ duty to return 
favors in kind, and even to arouse the dormant con- 
sciences of such lagging heroes as have been remiss. 
Whatever girls are caught, are escorted home, of 
course, with all the accompanying rights and priv- 
ileges. I never heard of their being bulletined though. 
There is one thing about it that I never thought of 
before,” Jack went on: “it is a wonderful test of pop- 
ularity. An unpopular fellow, or one with a shady 
character, is let severely alone, never gets even a 
shadow of a basket on his door. It is the same 
among the girls, too.” 

“Frank Powers told me that Katie has some fifty 
baskets hung around her room,” I remarked. 

“Daresay,” nodded Jack. “If Katie is a tom- 
boy, she’s as good as gold, and would help a fellow 
out of a fix far quicker than her brother would. He’s 
inclined to be missyish ! ” and our chief gave a look 
of unqualified disgust at the andiron, which for the 
moment personified the absent Frank. 

“After all, it’§ the tomboys that make the best 


SIMMERING DOWN. 


37 


women,” he continued musingly. “ I have heard my 
mother say so often. I suppose they get such a start 
in living through being so lively in growing.” 

“ Heigho ! ” yawned Tom, stretching his hands 
clasped above his head. “How would our worthy 
chief like to have Katie, Carrie, and one or two 
more elected and initiated into the ‘Millers’ Club’?” 

The chief looked over at Tom. Tom was imper- 
turbable. 

“You stood on your head a little too long this 
afternoon, my poor fellow !” said Jack. 

“We’d have a jolly time sending the lady members 
home such a night as this,” said I. 

“Just hear the rain!”, said Charlie dreamily- 
“Snug in here, though, isn’t it? ” 

Ah, but wasn’t it snug in that old room on a rainy 
night ! 

“Better hoist the lantern, Tom, and let the folks 
know where we are,” suggested Jack pleasantly. 

Tom looked rather ruefully around the rosy room, 
and then at the wild wet windows. But he fished out 
the signal lamp, though, and lighting it, mounted the 
ricketty stairs that led to the roof. 

We had a tall flagstaff there. From the top of it a 
light could be easily seen above the trees, at the 
village ; and when we planned to stay all night from 


3 » 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


the storm, or other causes, we ran up a red lantern 
for the benefit of the “old folks at home.” 

Coming down, Tom reported a gale “ on deck ; ” but 
we were too comfortable to mind. 

“By the way,” he added, in a matter-of-fact tone, 
as though it were of the least consequence in the 
world; shaking the drops of water all over the room 
like a Newfoundland dog, “I forgot to say that the 
girls have started a club of their own.” 

Four pair of feet descended with a crash. 

“What!” 

Tom repeated his statement. 

“When?” “Where?” “What for?” “How do 
you know ? ” Four questions in a breath. 

“ Yesterday ; at our house ; for fun. I was ex- 
pelled from the room, of course, but I heard them 
chattering away like magpies. May is the secretary; 
she’s rather ahead of you, Fred. She’s got a book 
with a lock on it. She sat and scratched away all 
last evening. When have you written up the log ? ” 

“ What else ? ” said Jack. “ Why don’t you tell us 
something ? ” 

“Well, then, they’ve got two chiefs, Carrie and 
Kate. They couldn’t choose between, and so took 
both. Wonder how we’d get along with two heads to 
our club ! ” 



V- 
















































■ 



• 





























SIMMERING DOWN. 


41 


Jack has a very expressive nose, long and mobile. 
He curled it here. 

“What geese girls are!” he said. 

“After all,” observed Bert with a yawn, “it isn’t 
so very strange. They never did let us start any- 
thing yet without trying to beat it. The only wonder 
is that they didn’t get it up before. But who cares ? ” 

And Bert yawned again tremendously. He was 
growing sleepy. Tom, too, seemed to have no further 
interest in the subject. In the old rocking-chair 
alongside Charlie he sat and read a newspaper. 

Not so with Jack and myself. We meant to fathom 
this new freak ; for when the girls banded together it 
generally meant mischief, and it behooved us to learn 
in what direction the lightning proposed travelling. 

But by and by a low sound as of muttered 
thunder grew upon our ears. I thought it was the 
dam, but Jack broke into a laugh. 

‘'It’s Bert, asleep, sound as a turtle. Wake him 
up, somebody. Hullo here ! everybody ! It’s time 
to turn in ! ” 

There was a general bustle. Hammocks were got 
out, and slung from hooks in the wall ; blankets were 
unrolled ; and within fifteen minutes from the order 
every boy was nested, and swinging with a long, 
drowsy swoop back and forth, while little broke the 


42 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


silence within save the occasional creak of a cord, 
and the crackle of the fire as it sent long tongues of 
light and shade flickering across the room, and 
stamped the shadow of a row of boots on the wall. 

The rain beat in sharp, fitful gusts against the 
windows, and struck the roof with a muffled, monot- 
onous rattle. The roar of the dam sounded faintly 
musical in the lulls, and found an echo in the upper 
fall. Then again, the mill bent and cracked before 
the blasts that filled the loft above with ghostly 
noises; a door slammed ; the floor buckled and 
snapped as though a heavy man were walking across 
the outer hall; a tall shadow arose among the 
clustered boots, growing larger and wider, spreading 
right and left, till it engulfed the whole room, and 
finally swallowing up the fire, left it dark. 

We were asleep. 


WE WERE ASLEEP 



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CHAPTER III. 


THEIR CLUB. 

{■From outside minutes of the proceedings .) 

T AP ! tap ! tap ! Three quick blows with a tack- 
hammer on the table ! 

“ Will the ladies of the ‘ Petticoat Nine ’ please 
come to order ! ” Sharp and decisive. 

A general rustle, and then silence. 

“Queen of the Door, is the hall clear of eaves- 
droppers, and everything secure ? ” 

“ It is, most worshipful Twinsister.” The Queen of 
the Door made a low curtesy, and stifled a giggle be- 
hind her handkerchief. 

“ ’Tis well ! We will now listen to the secretary’s 
report.” 

During the reading, the presiding Twinsister sat 
back in her chair. She was probably busily running 
over in her mind her coming speech, for just a line of 
doubtful thought was visible between her eyes as they 

45 


4 6 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


danced with fun behind their fringy palisades. There 
was also a sly little imp of mischief observed playing 
hide-and-seek among the curves of her smiling 
lips. , 

The reading ended; but she still sat smilingly 
gazing at nothing until aroused to her duty by a 
sharp pinch from her colleague. Stepping forward, 
with one hand resting lightly upon the table, and 
her head tossing back its wealth of flowing hair, 
“ Ladies,” she began, “ I have a revelation to make 
unto your august assembly here to-night which 
will stand your hair on end ‘ like quills upon the 
fretful porcupine/ and cause your very hearts to 
quiver ! ” 

She stopped, drank a little water from the glass 
before her, and looked solemn. 

“ I have received information, ladies, of a conspi- 
racy against the peace and welfare of this sacred 
band of Sisters, as represented by myself; and are 
we not pledged to stand by one another amid all the 
vicissitudes of this weary life ? ” she asked, in a 
voice full of mock feeling. 

We are ! ” answered the members as with one 
voice ; and the Queen of the Door advanced slowly 
into the middle of the room with the state utensils — 
a thrice-hallowed dustpan and brush — laid them 



47 













THEIR CLUB. 


49 


carefully upon the little round centre-table amid a low 
chorus of chanting voices, and with bowed head 
retired backwards. 

This was the Club chant : 

“ Bound are we in a league of wrath, 

To sweep the Millers from our path ” 

All gazed at the symbols, quivering with subdued 
emotions. Their leader raised a handkerchief to her 
eyes, but at last, with a mighty effort, recovered her 
self-command. 

“ No doubt you are all aware of May’s arrival, with 
that reprehensible pastime of ‘hanging May-baskets ’ 
in her train ? ” she continued. 

There was a dramatic giggle. “ We are ! ” 

“ I have certain information, ladies, certain infor- 
mation, that one of our number — one before indi- 
cated to you — has been selected as a victim to the 
Spirit of May by her most devoted votaries ! Shall 
you permit her to be sacrificed ? Must there 
be another Iphigenia?” she asked tragically, while 
a sympathetic thrill swept through the Leagued 
Nine. 

“ I will not waste our time by empty speech. To 
action ! but first I will justify ourselves by plain 


50 THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 

proof, and to that effect will summon witnesses. 
Examining Sister, call Susie Waters.” 

Susie came forward promptly, a bright-eyed girl, 
with a certain air of alertness, and a fine forehead 
half-concealed with fluffy hair. She spoke with a 
curious little drawl that was considerably at variance 
with her character ; and the color came and went in 
her dimpled cheeks almost with every breath. 

“ Please state what you know of this Catiline-like 
plot?” said the Examining Sister, as Katie sank 
majestically into her seat. 

“ I noticed that the Millers’ Club seemed to be 
much exercised in mind at recess to-day,” Susie 
laughed. “They kept holding little confabs in the 
corners, as though they were plotting mischief, and 
looking over at us; but when any of us came near 
they hushed up and tried to look innocent. But I — 
happened — to pass when they did not see me, and 
just caught these words : ‘ I’ll get the tissue-paper. ’ ” 

There was a slight sensation. The girls began to 
look more interested. 

“ Who uttered them ? ” demanded the Examining: 
Sister. 

“ Fred Parker.” 

“That will do. Call Fannie Nason,” interrupted 
Katie. 





THEIR CLUB. 


53 


“ I went into Miss Whitney’s store to match a rib- 
bon, and caught Master Fred matching tissue-paper ! ” 
said Fannie, with a flash of her dark eyes. “The 
moment that he saw me — and that was before I was 
out of the doorway — he was buying a lead-pencil 
instead ; but I had seen what I had seen. Besides, 
Miss Whitney told me of it afterward, and that he 
tucked it into his pocket the instant that I touched 
the latch.” 

“ Did he look confused ? ” asked the Examining 
Sister. 

“ Not he ! He was as cool as a well — and as 
deep. He did hot even color, but just bowed and 
said, ‘ Hullo ! ’ and went out whistling’ as calm and 
serene as the summer sky ! ” and Fannie looked 
highly indignant at such duplicity. 

It was thought rather inconsistent in her, as she 
was a capital little actress herself. 

“Ladies,” said Kate, “ it is now made evident that 
they have obtained supplies. We shall presently see 
against whom their effort is directed. Call Nelly 
Miller.” 

A short, dumpy girl with glasses came forward and 
gave her evidence : 

“ I sit when at school by the middle aisle, nearest 
the boys, and Jack Arlington and Fred Parker are 


54 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


between me and the window. You know I am a little 
deaf, and have learned to read words upon the lips. 
Well, Fred has a — a very expressive — mouth ” — 
she stopped, and turned a little red as a giggle ran 
around ; but all were too much interested to tease. 
“ By turning my head a little way I could see by the 
reflection in my glasses what was going on behind 
me ; and I distinctly saw Fred say, ‘We’ll hang Katie 
Powers one to-morrow night, if no more.’ ” 

“ Think of it, ladies ! ” cried Katie, her dark 
cheek blushing vividly as though she had never had 
a basket in her life, instead of her room being as 
full as a Sioux wigwam is with scalps. 

“And Jack nodded and shook his head threaten- 
ingly at you,” concluded Nelly with a laugh. “ And 
he gave a little scowl, so, and showed his white teeth. 
I think he hasn’t forgotten last year yet.” 

Her laugh had an echo — a good many of them. 

Katie’s eyes danced at certain reminiscences. 
She tried hard to preserve her gravity, but it was of 
no use ; and leaning back she laughed and laughed, 
until she fairly cried. 

“ It’s useless, girls : I really cannot control myself 
when I think of his blank face when we surprised 
him at the very door ! Gather close now. We’ve 
found the chance to be even with them for all the 


THEIR CLUB. 


55 


pranks they have played on us the last term. If my 
plans will only work as they ought, and not go flying 
off on a boomerang, or twist around in some un- 
heard-of way, we can capture the whole Club in the 
act ; and then won’t we just have fun ! ” 

They all laughed again, in a way that chilled a cer- 
tain person not here to be mentioned. They did not 
enact a Feejee war-dance — oh, no! They did not 
turn the room into a sanctuary of whirling dervishes, 
till the eye could not tell whether it was girls or 
whirligigs ! 

They would have you believe that it was the most 
stately of club minuets that made the dust fly out so 
from under the door that a certain tall figure sneezed 
his loudest. They were making too much noise to 
hear him, but the nameless one heard himself ; and 
instead of saving us from tribulation, he sought 
cover for the next five minutes like a startled hare. 

Katie might have heard him, after all. Those little 
ears tucked away under the waving hair were won- 
derfully keen sometimes. What more she had to 
say was in a low tone, and spoken rapidly; and when 
she finished there was another whirligig. 

“ Oh, this is something worth while ! I’ll at least 
pay master Tom for making fun of me in the reading 
class ! ” and Susie gave a vindictive dab of her tiny 


56 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


fist at an imaginary head, much as a girl would be 
likely to — as though she had a hammer in her hand. 
A girl don’t know how to strike from the shoulder ! 
(i Opinion of the Millers' Club.) 

These two had been at swords-points all the 
spring, ever since she had asked Tom the old conun- 
drum : why was her hair like one of Dickens’ novels ; 
and instead of hearing “ Because it was all-of-a- 
twist,” he had audaciously answered that it was 
“ Because ’twas an old curiosity-shop ! ” 

“ It seems almost too bad ! ” said Carrie, regret- 
fully, “ they’ll be teased so. Just think how poor 
Jack caught it last year. Girls, lets not do any such 
wholesale thing ! ” 

“ Oh, nonsense, Carrie ! ” laughecf Kate, “ I think 
they can stand it ; and if there were no risks, the 
whole idea would be dreadfully stupid ; they wouldn’t 
do it if there was nothing to be dared as a penalty. 
Come, beloved Twin, promise me that you will not 
go straight like a little goose and betray us all.” 

“ I don’t believe we’ll catch Fred Parker, anyway,” 
observed Milly Winter, with an air of patience and 
long-suffering provoked, by the memories of numerous 
past failures. 

“Well, I’m rather afraid not, too,” said Katie, 
candidly. “ He seems to bear a charmed life. I 


FIJI WAR DANCE f OH, NO! 


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THEIR CLUB. 


59 


have always thought that he was with Jack last year, 
but if he was he went like a shadow, for we never 
really saw him. I would give more to catch him at 
it than any other boy in town ! ” 

“ Didn’t you ever see him ? ” asked Susie, rather 
astonished. “ I thought that he hung you one 
regularly every year.” 

Katie colored a little. . 

“ Yes-s; ” she said slowly, “sometimes I have seen 
him ; but there isn’t a girl in town, or a boy either, 
I suppose, who can catch him in a fair chase. We 
mustn’t give him any chances ; we all must have that 
specially in mind. Our triumph will not be complete 
without the chief offenders — and he’ll be pretty sure 
to be chosen to do the hanging,” she added shrewdly. 

“ There are not half enough of us,” remarked Fanny 
Nason discontentedly; “they will go through us like 
the wind, and just leave us looking at each other 
like simpletons ! ” and the little gypsy’s eyes flashed 
irately at the mere thought. 

“ Oh, I propose asking the whole class over to my 
house to-morrow night, very privately of course,” said 
Katie with a gay laugh, and a pirouette across the room. 


For I’m to be Queen of the May, mother, 
I’m to be Queen of the May 1 ” 


6o 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


And then for the next five minutes — a hubbub. 

“ What are you going to do with your captives, 
Kate, when you have them ? ” asked May Wylie, a 
little anxiously; her brother was likely to be one, 
and she was in some doubt as to how far she ought 
to allow this to go without warning him. 

“ First catch your hare, my dear, then — stuff it, 
the cookery-books say; thus will I! We’ll take 
them in, get up some kind of an ordeal to improve 
their appetites, banquet them, dismiss them with our 
blessing, and to-morrow — bulletin ! ” 

“ Tell Bert Edwards about the banquet and you 
won’t have much trouble catching him,” remarked 
Fanny. 

“ No ; he’d risk the bulletin and everything else. 
I wish he wasn’t so fearfully strong. It would take 
us all to hold him alone. Oh, I have it ! we’ll have 
some ropes and tie them as we catch them. And 
how Jack and Fred will fume when they are tied ! I 
don’t believe the rest will care much, but I know 
that Fred, at least, is as proud as a grand seignior ; 
he will be just raving ! ” and she laughed wickedly at 
the discomfort of soul that in imagination was being 
meted out to the two principal offenders. 

“ What makes you so very severe against them, 
Kitty ? ” asked Milly Winter. “ I know that you 


THEIR CLUB. 


6l 


are the reigning divinity of the whole club. Tom 
declares openly that you are the only girl in town 
worth having — with a mental reservation in Susie’s 
favor ; ” which innuendo made that young lady 
color wrathfully. “ And — Charlie, well, I won’t 
betray him, as he is my brother ; but Bert worships 
you dumbly, J ack would fight any one who breathed a 
word against you, and Fred would go three miles 
any day, to do you a favor, unasked ; while he 
wouldn’t go three steps for any one else, unless it 
were Carrie, perhaps ; that is, unless we asked 
him, of course. Yet here you are consigning them 
all to the most ignominious punishment, without a 
pang. What ingratitude ! ” 

Katie looked a little conscience-stricken. 

“ Yes, I know. I suppose I am a trifle bad to 
treat them so. But I don’t like them any the less,” 
she remarked with refreshing candor ; and then with 
a most matronly air, “ Boys are so conceited, gen- 
erally, that it is a blessing to them to be taken down 
occasionally ; and as the Millers’ Club is the pick of 
the school, they have a nice chance of being spoiled ; 
therefore — ” 


CHAPTER IV. 


CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES. 

I N the mean time we went about our business. 

Examinations were in order, and our evenings 
were spent in hard study. 

Jack was the best mathematician; Tom was au- 
thority on Latin and Greek ; Charlie looked out all 
doubtful questions of grammar, and I handled the 
lexicon. Bert was not particularly strong in anything. 

By thus systematizing our work we managed to go 
over the whole ground of the previous month in a few 
evenings ; and as all hard points had been carefully 
noted when we first met them, they were cleared with 
our united efforts, and even Bert was better prepared 
than he ever expected to be. We had fought our 
daily lessons separately ; but when examinations 
came on, we brought up the reserves, and concen- 
trated for the mutual good. 

62 


CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES. 


6 3 


“ There ! ” cried Tom, flinging the Virgil upon the 
table with a slam, as he finished the last line of the 
month, “ now then, hooray for liberty ! ” 

“Out with the tissue-paper!” sang Jack, kicking 
over his chair, and cutting an impromptu pigeon- 
wing. “ Out with the tissue-paper, in with the 
books ! Bring me, ye winged winds, my paste-pot 
and the shears ! ” 

Bert wasn’t a winged wind, nor anything like it ; 
but he brought the desired implements with a placid 
smile. 

“What’s the design, Jack?” asked Tom, curiously. 
Our chief was always brimming with ideas, but we 
had been promised an extra effort of imagination for 
this occasion. 

“ Patience, my son!” said Jack, dreamily. “ Little 
boys should be seen, not heard. One of you help 
Fred cut some of that paper into fringe, and the 
rest of you crimp it.” 

We went to work with a will on our paper, and 
there was soon a heap of crimps upon the table, 
enough for a dozen baskets, I thought. 

“ Come, Jack, haven’t we got enough ? ” 

But Jack was still looking into the fire, a perfectly 
rapt expression upon his face, a sheet of cardboard 
on his knee. 


6 4 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


“Gone to sleep!” said Tom, saucily. “Stir him 
up, Charlie, you are the nearest ! ” 

Charlie respectfully declined. But Jack suddenly 
turned his back to us, and began draughting rapidly ; 
then dropping his pencil, he seized the shears. A 
few vigorous snips, a twist or two, half a dozen pins 
here and there for fastening, then he whirled around 
with a cheer and held it up before our delighted 
eyes — only the skeleton of a frame, shaky and 
incomplete — but to our experienced crowd full of 
unbounded possibilities. 

It was a four-post, canopied bedstead ! 

“ There, boys, how’s that ? ” he asked triumph- 
antly : 


“ I am Ozymandias, king of kings ! 

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair ! ” 

We looked ; we despaired, too ! we roared with 
laughter. But it had a serious side. 

“ Jack, are you really going to hang that thing ? ” 
drawled Bert. “ It will be risky ; if we should 
happen to be caught we’d have the whole school 
singing ‘ Put me in my Little Bed ’ for the next half- 
year ! ” 

“That is our lookout, you know!” was Jack’s 
answer, as he dextrously dipped a bit of crimps in 


CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES. 


6 5 



A FOUR-POST, CANOPIED BEDSTEAD. 


the paste, and applied it with an artistic eye to effect, 
continuing the process until the whole body was one 
mass of parti-colored fuzz. 

“I said,” said he, “that I would make things howl 



66 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


this year, and if this don’t wake the enemy I don’t 
know what will. Pass me some more crimps, some of 
you.” 

The canopy was put on ; the corner pillars strength- 
ened with cedar splints and spiralled with fringe ; a 
cotton mattress and pillow were added, and tissue- 
paper sheets, and the thing was complete. After- 
ward we added streamers. 

Jack held it up proudly for inspection. 

“What you going to put in it ?” asked Tom, medi- 
tatively. “ We always have had candy, but somehow 
this needs a doll, don’t it ? ” 

“You’re right, brother Miller,” said Jack ; and he 
smilingly took a stick of candy from his pocket. 
“Here, Fred, cut out a wardrobe for this sweet 
being, while I make a head. Be sure and leave a 
bunch of paper for a neck.” 

Taking an oval, red-sugared almond from another 
pocket, and a bit of cloth, he cut out a tiny hood for 
it, whipped out a needle from his “ possible sack” 
and sewed it on, and then sewed the hood to the 
paper neck. 

“ There ! ” She’s a trifle red in the face, but we 
will call it a blush and forgive it. Now, Fred, you 
are the best draughtsman in the crowd ; just sketch a 
face on that ’s near like Katie Powers’ as you can, and 


CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES. 


67 


the victory is complete, at least until hanging time.” 

I did my level best, and the result rather aston- 
ished me. Loud and long the rafters of the old mill 
rang as we all leaned back and laughed, until, Cassam 
dra-like, I remarked, with Pat once upon a time: 

“ It’s a moighty foine thing that we had our laugh 
first.” 

We wanted to start straightway, but Jack vetoed 
that. 

“ It’s too late ; you forget it is a mile and a half to 
Katie’s, and over the river at that ; we had not 
planned it for to-night, either. Now, fellows, as 
Charlie lives nearest we will meet there instead of 
here at the mill, at sharp seven, dropping in acci- 
dentally, you know. I wish you could send Millie 
out of the way.” 

“ She’ll be out at Susie Waters’,” said Charlie. 
“ They get their lessons together half the time.” 

Jack looked relieved. 

“ I was afraid that she might smell a mice, and 
scamper off to the others. That’s the bother of hav- 
ing sisters!” And here Jack looked superior; he 
didn’t have any. 

“They are all sisters to you, Jack — you rather 
seem to like that sort,” remarked Tom. 

Jack turned red, but for all that, smiled brightly. 


68 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


His was the Arab’s idea of a gentleman. Their 
word for it, when translated, is “ A brother of girls ” ! 
I doubt whether our chief ever suspected how we all 
honored him in our secret thoughts — that he was 
the ideal of his uproarious followers. 

We met at Charlie’s. Millie was away, as he pre- 
dicted, so the field was clear. But one thing had 
already struck me. There seemed to be a great 
many girls on the street that evening, walking arm in 
arm, and some of them I caught looking at me 
stealthily, in a way that I could not account for ; and 
a vague suspicion that all was not right was growing 
upon me. 

At last I hinted something of my uneasiness to the 
others, but they only made game of what they called 
my “ sudden development of self-conceit.” 

“ All right, fellows ! ” I cried at last, with some 
heat. “But if any one is caught it will not be me ! ” 

They remembered that afterward. 

As soon as it was safely dark we sallied forth 
silently, keeping along the hedges, and dodging into 
shadow at any noise. Jack carried the basket. We 
went through the village easily and reached the 
bridge, where Bert stopped to swear the tollman to 
secrecy. 

“You’d better take keer,” the man remarked with a 


CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES. 


69 


comical twist of the mouth as he went in. “ A hull 
slew o’ girls went through here ’bout half ’n hour back.” 

I could not help but smile, and the rest looked at 
each other doubtfully. 

“ Never mind, boys ! they hardly think of sur- 
rounding us, and anyhow we can scatter an’ take to 
the fields if the worst comes ! ” said Charlie pluckily. 

Diving into the darkness of the bridge we walked 
soft and swiftly, with a long swinging tread that 
carried us well along our way in a very few minutes. 
Nothing could be heard save our muffled tramp in 
the dusty road ; even the frogs were still in the 
ditches. 

“ It’s too still ! ” whispered Bert, who had been 
reading Cooper, and had his head full of Indian lore. 
“ It’s so still you can almost see silence ! ” 

We crept along through the night until the quaint 
outlines of a giant birch loomed up dimly in the 
darkness, solitary sentinel of a fork in the road ; 
here Jack held up his hand, and we halted. 

“It’s not safe to go further in a crowd,” he said. 
“Let the rest stay here, and Fred and I will do the 
deed. Be ready to run now when you hear the 
signal, for we shall come like streaks, and there will 
probably be a dozen after us, according to the toll- 
man.” And drawing the basket from beneath his 


7o 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


coat, he affectionately smoothed the wrinkles from 
the “ tails.” 

Tom gave us a solemn benediction, and we took 
leave amid a show of feeling most affecting, and 
running lightly past the church, that provokingly 
threw its shadow in precisely the wrong direction, 
we crept on in the shadow of the elms till the 
blurred mass of the house appeared, and soon we 
were crouching down beside the gate. 

Jack bent to my ear: 

“ Fred, don’t try to open it — it creaks ! ” 

I chuckled, and nodded. 

“ How did you know?” 

I could not see his face in the darkness, but I 
saw his shoulders go up like a Frenchman’s. I be- 
gan to understand how he came to be bulletined 
last year. 

He consented that I should be the storming party. 
I soon found a familiar breach, and carefully squeezed 
through. Jack handed me the basket; it rustled 
fearfully loud ; in fact, to my nervous ear, everything 
seemed to crash, yet I doubt if any of my movements 
could be heard ten feet away. 

Stepping on tiptoe across to the steps, I mounted 
them, tremulously dropped the loop over the door- 
knob, gave one vigorous pull at the bell, and on the 



CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES. 7 1 


instant whirled and sprang away for my life. Even 

while in mid-air, I heard 
the latch rattle, heard a 
ringing laugh, heard a 
multitudinous cheer! 


it creaks! ” 


With a mighty wrench Jack tore the sticky gate 




72 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


open, slammed it after me as I shot through, and 
with a whistle like a locomotive grasped my hand and 
flashed down the road at a terrific pace. “ Easy, 
Jack!” I remonstrated, after we had gone at a 
killing rate for some thirty rods. “ Don’t waste any 
strength ! ” 

For answer he threw up his head like a startled 
stag. “Listen!” 

Down the road, delayed doubtless by the clinging 
gate, the rapid beat of a dozen light feet came 
faintly through the still night air, growing louder 
and clearer, drawing nearer and nearer in spite of 
the pace we already ran. 

“This won’t do, Fred ! ” cried Jack. “ I’ll signal 
them once more, and then every man for himself.” 

And drawing his signal whistle, this time he blew a 
sharp note. 

It was answered by another whistle — a strange 
one — behind us ! Then we saw the boys in the dusk 
ahead leap away with a sudden spurt. Around the 
bend, past the great birch, over the brook we sped, 
until the black cavern of the bridge towered up 
through the. darkness, and still we had not over- 
taken them, although we had gained a dozen rods 
since they first hove in sight. We could even see 
Tom running with his short, quick stroke, Charlie 


CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES. 


73 


leaping on as though a mass of springs, instead of 
muscles, light as a feather, while Bert was pounding 
away doggedly, with a staying power that served him 
well. He was not as swift as they, but he could 
keep it up. 

Suddenly a shrill metallic whistle cut the air. It 
sounded right ahead of us, as if blown in our very 
faces. 

Jack glanced round at me, and the next instant 
a crowd of girls appeared in the very entrance of the 
bridge as though by magic, and we saw Tom, Bert 
and Charlie, all three, run plump into their open 
arms ! 

We managed to stop dead in the midst of our 
tremendous race. 

Before us the way was blocked ; behind, Katie 
and the rest were coming- on at an easy gait, laugh- 
ing and panting with their hard run, perfectly and 
comfortably sure of us. On one side the high bank 
of the cut extended from a long distance back to the 
very edge of the bluff that overhung the river; and 
now from over the low wall that guarded the other 
side came tumbling and rushing still another line 
of girls with shrieks of laughter, already stretching 
out their hands. I saw cords in them — and I saw 
beyond ! I could see the bulletin] ">ard of the next 


74 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


day. The whole class were out to compass the 
complete humiliation of the haughty Millers’ Club. 

“Jack!” I whispered desperately, “you can do 
as you like, but I won’t be caught ! I never have 
been yet, and I shan’t begin now. I’d rather swim 
the river ! ” 

The ice was hardly out of it yet, and it was fully a 
hundred and thirty yards wide, black and gurgling. 

“I’m with you, Fred !” said Jack, sullenly. He 
had been caught, and he knew all about it. 

We wheeled, and with a sudden dart we were down 
and running like cats along the crumbling shelf 
beneath the bank. A whole chorus of cries went 
up. The girls had heard the leap. But the ditch 
saved us. They hesitated at that, and before they 
had crossed it we were already among the bushes. 
A heavy log lay there ; I remembered seeing it a 
few days before. Jack was for going over the bluff 
head-first, when I made a grab at him. “ Hold on, 
Jack ! ” I whispered in a low tone. “Throw this in.” 

He looked at me for just a breath, uncompre- 
hendingly ; then he laughed, suddenly — gleefully! 

There rose on the air then a sounding splash ; 
there was a sound of puffing and blowing; some- 
thing dark floated down upon the swift current ; 
then all was still, save the slight cracking of the 


WITH A SUDDEN DART WE WENT DOWN. 





ft* 









- CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES. 


77 


bent bushes as they sprang back into place. That 
also ceased. 

The girls came thronging along through the gap, 
perfectly aghast. Tom and Charlie were with them, 
but Bert was nowhere to be seen. 

“ If only you had not jumped out so quickly ! ” 
mourned Katie, as she peered through the dusk at 
the dark object, now caught by an eddy and thrown 
well out toward the middle of the river. 

“ But how could we help it ? ” flashed a voice, and 
there was a wrathful stamp of a foot among the drift- 
wood. “ There they were, right before us, and a sec- 
ond’s delay might have spoiled all, for we were but 
just in time to catch the others as it was. We sup- 
posed, of course, they were all together. Next time 
you may do your own catching, Katie Powers ! ” 

“ You don’t suppose that they will drown, do you ? ” 
asked some one suddenly. 

“ I don’t know ! ” 

And I saw Katie look white at the very thought. 
I suppose that the idea that by her madcap prank she 
perhaps had driven two of her best friends to their 
death, sent something of a chill quivering to her 
heart ! 

It seemed a lifetime before any one spoke. 

They stood there, mute and motionless, gazing 


73 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


with clasped hands, listening until they probably 
could hear their own heartbeats. 

Some one gave a low sob — a choking sound. 

The boys could stand it no longer. They broke 
into a broad laugh. 

“Drowned! not they!” cried Tom. “They are 
clear across the river by now. ” 

There was a great revulsion of feeling among the 
girls. Some laughed and others cried, but a sudden 
movement near him showed Tom that he had been 
slightly indiscreet. 

“ It’s no use to try to catch them now,” he added, 
still devoutly hoping that we were out of reach, 
but in considerable doubt of the fact. “ They 
will be at home before you can reach the other 
side.” 

“ What geese we’ve been ! ” was Katie’s remark, 
in a mortified and exasperated tone. “ I might have 
known that Fred would get away, and he was the one 
we wanted most. He always does get clear in every 
scrape, somehow ! ” she added discontentedly, as 
they slowly picked their way back toward the road. 

“ But, never mind, we have three of you.” 

As soon as they began to move, and would thus 
cover the sound, we ran along the ledge to the other 
side of the bridge, climbed up through a hole in the 


CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES. 


79 


boarding, and stood erect in the roadway as dry as 
they were. 

“ Is that you, fellows ? ” whispered a voice. 

We turned, startled. 

“ Why, it’s Bert, and tied, as I’m a sinner ! ” Jack 
threw back his head for a hearty laugh, but I clapped 
my hand hastily over his mouth. 

“Fact ! ” he whispered in a smothered tone as he 
passed through some inward convulsion that shook 
him all over, and ran quivering away down into his 
boots. “I forgot where we were; where is your 
knife, Fred?” 

“ I have one ! ” whispered Bert, hoarsely, in an 
agony of suspense, hearkening to the returning 
voices. “ Do hurry up ! ” 

I laughed enjoyingly under my breath, and stood 
looking at him with my hands on my hips, shaking 
all over. 

“Bert is really in haste for once ! Was he afraid 
he’d be bulletined, and was he tied like a lamb led 
to the altar ? ” 

Bert groaned, “ Don’t hit a fellow when he is down. 
They are almost to the road already. Do cut me 
loose ! ” 

It was growing a little warm, and we found the 
knife and severed the cords. It was a piece of ratline 


8o 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


that they had used. They had a high appreciation of 
Bert’s strength. 

“Now then, travel ! ” said Jack. 

It was time ; for in the light of the rising moon 
which was now streaming athwart the bridge through 
every crack and knot-hole, and flooding field and 
road, we could see the enemy, with little squeaks of 
fright jumping the ditch, or standing in dismay upon 
the verge. It was not so easy to jump back in cold 
blood. 

“ Let’s not run,” said Bert. “ It is too light ; 
let’s climb- up among the beams and see ’em go 
by.” 

Well, we would certainly be safe there, even if dis- 
covered ; and seizing the hint, away we swarmed up 
among the trestle-work, and flattened ourselves like 
lizards along the great centre-beam, amid the dust of 
years. We were not a moment too soon. Scarcely 
had we settled ourselves when the girls came troop- 
ing through, and great was the lamentation when 
they found their prisoner gone. 

“ How on earth could that boy break through so 
thick a cord ? ” cried somebody.- “ I thought it 
would hold them all ! ” 

Tom glanced at the loose ends, showing cleanly 
cut in the moonlight, started, and with a comical 


CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES. 


8l 


squint at the discomfited girls whispered something 
to Charlie. 

Charlie looked bright in turn, and eyed the rope. 
Then they both shook with suppressed merriment 
which rose superior to their present misfortune, and 
finally broke forth beyond all bounds. 

“ Oh, you may laugh, Tom Wylie, but we have you 
at all events ! ” retorted Susie Waters. “ I don’t 
think that you will break away ! ” 

“Ha! ha! ha! Oh dear! it isn’t that, but — oh- 
ho ! ho ! ho ! — it’s cut ! Jack Arlington cut it while 
you were holding a wake over your supposed Lean- 
der. Sold again, Katie ! They didn’t swim the river 
after all, but ran around to the other side while you 
were poking about ! Hurrah for our worthy chief ! ” 
and our fellows both cheered with a vim. 

“ Impossible ! ” cried Katie Powers, snatching up 
the cords. 

“Well, see for yourself!” And with a cheerful 
smile Tom shrugged his shoulders at her dis- 
belief. 

This was “ the most unkindest cut of all.” 

If we had swum the river she could have borne it, 
for it would be an escape so unheard of as to be im- 
possible to foresee. But to be outwitted in this 
barefaced manner was too much for the equanimity 


82 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


of an angel, and — I am sorry to have to state it, 
but Katie undeniably sulked. 

They bore off their prisoners, however, and what 
happened during their captivity no mortal ever re- 
vealed. No power of persuasion could tempt them. 
An ominous silence forever prevailed. 

Jack and I had our theories, however. We rather 
guessed that they had to stand the brunt for our in- 
iquities as well as their own. Indeed, Katie let out 
as much inadvertently one day, but an imploring 
look from Tom set them all a-laughing, and not 
another word would they say, to our great disgust, 
simply remarking that “ they could keep a secret, 
girls as they were.” 

Still we had our revenge. The boys were bul- 
letined, as a matter of course ; but our daring escape 
and our rescue of Bert made so much talk, and 
brought such ridicule upon their captors, that they 
were hardly noticed, and thus escaped lightly. On 
the other hand, the columns of the Gem teemed with 
pertinent inquiries and sarcasms, for we enlisted the 
services of the sharpest pens in school, always de- 
lighted to find a weak point in the enemy’s armor, 
and as they had many grievances of their own to 
avenge, the last hour of the weekly meetings of the 
Lyceum saw a hall full of school-folk simply con- 


CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES. 


83 


vulsed with laughter, the paper being read from the 
rostrum, not printed. 

Indeed, so little notice was taken of the bulletin, 
and so unavailing were their efforts to use it as a 
lightning-rod to divert attention from themselves, 
that Katie at last pulled down the notice board in a 
fit of vexation, and threw it into the fire, declaring 
that the old glory had departed, and that, for her 
part, she would never, never, never, post another 
name. 

As she kept her word, the custom was gradually 
forgotten, until now but few would remember that it 
ever had existed in Zethel, unless they had suffered 
from it themselves. 

Jack does. 

You ask him 1 


CHAPTER V. 


ALL ON A SATURDAY. 


ND the June days came, with the long, cool 



JrY twilights under the trees ; with the softened 
breeze whispering overheard, and the tall grass bend- 
ing in the meadows ; with the bobolinks swaying on 
the lilies, the wild duck among the rushes, gamey 
trout in every mountain stream, and the shark-like 
pickerel in the great river. 

These are the days when the hum of the class- 
room grows far away ; when you look straight through 
the map-covered walls, out into the wildwood, whis- 
pering mechanically page after page of well-worn 
histories, while your soul goes out to roam among 
the shadows of the thickets ; when the lazy drone of 
the flies up and down the pane seems an unaccountable 
call to flee to the forest fastnesses. To us club-boys, 
upon whom tasks at home held a lien, these first June 


ALL ON A SATURDAY. 


85 





days were full of frettings for what boy can see the 
beauty of a Saturday spent in weeding onions, with 
the distant shouts of more mature ball-players echo- 


86 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


in g from the common, or the prospective gain in 
spading a garden when he should be digging fishing- 
worms ? 

We were seldom up at the mill now by day. The 
dusk found us there occasionally, but more often on 
the green, mossy banks of the old canal ; we left the 
mill for rainy days and winter time. 

One Friday, word was passed to meet early at the 
old bridge the next day ; and a stir ran around the 
school-room. There were some remarkable answers 
given in the recitations that followed, and a general 
absent-mindedness was noted ; for it was the first 
summons since the “hanging.” 

Even the girls seemed to know that something was 
up ; their club had rather died out from lack of an 
object, after its one great effort ; but we were still 
at war as corporations. 

As usual, I was the first upon the ground, living 
somewhat nearer than the rest, and going to the rendez- 
vous through the woods and across lots. Throwing 
myself down upon a mossy bank, I gazed dreamily 
along the water, thinking busily of nothing ; watch- 
ing the whirligig flies in their mazy dance upon the 
sunlit surface, this way and that, weaving fantastic 
figures in the silvery light. 

A frog leaped with a sullen “tchug!” into the depths, 


ALL ON A SATURDAY. 


87 



and reappearing, began to make his way steadily up 
the gentle current, using both propellers alternately, 
with his bright eyes alert for a wayside fly. Then 
he struck a swifter eddy, and with a smothered groan 


88 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


of resignation lowered his pointed nose to the level 
of the water, closed his eyes, and with a long, slow 
stroke forged along, leaving a string of bubbles in 
his wake ; every half minute he raised his head to 
make sure of his bearings. At last the two little 
turret-like eyes grew indistinct, and finally disap- 
peared around the bend. I watched him sleepily to 
the last, then sought something new. 

A woodpecker dropped on the rotting sleepers of 
the old bridge, and began to hammer away for grubs, 
his steady “rap ! rap ! rap !” echoing through the 
birches. He had a red head, and his wings were 
speckled. Suddenly he gave a shrill whistle ; a start, 
a flutter, and he was rods away in the top of a giant 
pine, as the boys came crashing through the brush 
fence, hot and dusty, and dropped in their turn upon 
the bank. 

Not on the bridge ; for that rustic specimen of 
architecture was now so ancient and little used, 
narrowed by the loss of a sagging board from time 
to time, that it was hardly safe for a mosquito. We 
had been on the point of destroying it a dozen times ; 
yet as it was not our bridge, but in the pasture of a 
certain warm-tempered citizen instead, various pru- 
dential reasons had restrained us. 

Without a word of greeting, as I came out of my 


ALL ON A SATURDAY. 


89 


corner Jack flung his hat into the bushes, and leap- 
ing out of his clothes as if by magic, plunged head- 
first into the deepest hole in the stream. Splash ! 
splash ! splash ! and six or eight irregular plunges 
followed him as so many white streaks flashed in the 
sunlight for an instant, and vanished in the water 
until it foamed with the sudden strokes. Nearly a 
minute passed before they all came up together, rods 
away, puffing like porpoises, each with a handful of 
sand in his fist, to prove that he had touched bottom, 
which he lost no time in applying to his neighbor’s face. 

And then began a sod-fight, grim and earnest ! 
The air was full of turf flying back and forth, splash- 
ing in the water till it became of inky blackness, and 
the white-armed warriors were white no more. Then 
they turned upon me. I dodged a heavy sod just in 
time, as it came flip-flap over the leaves, filling my 
neck with sand. It stirred my ire ; and tossing the 
scattered clothing into a little arbor that we had 
hollowed under a scrubby bush, out of sight and 
harm’s way, off went my clothes, crash went my 
boots among the limbs, and I rushed into the fray 
like an ancient Berserker ! 

Jack was defending himself valiantly against their 
combined energies, with his back to a stump, when 
I came to the rescue with a whoop. 


9 ° 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


A heavy sod completely routed Tom, another sent 
Charlie to the rear, and Bert dodged until my ammuni- 
tion gave out ; and after a random gun or so, and a 
clean dip further up stream, we climbed out in the sun 
to dry, panting and laughing as we dropped on the 
grassy slope. 

“ I say, fellows, what are we here for, anyway ? ” 
said Bert, suddenly remembering the mysterious sum- 
mons, and sitting up. “You started it, Jack; now 
what’s the idea ? ” 

Jack’s answer was an inquiry as to how much 
money we could raise. We took an account of stock 
instantly. 

“ We’re pretty rich, after all,” he remarked with 
satisfaction. “ Now then, what do you say to clubbing 
together and getting my cousin, Will Gannet, to send 
us a lot of fireworks from Portland for the Fourth, 
you know ? ” 

“ Humph ! that all ? ” sniffed Bert, discontentedly. 

“Keep cool, bub!” laughed Jack, which advice 
was rather unnecessary, as the water was still run- 
ning in streams from Bert’s hair. “ Boys,” he went 
on, “ do you remember what Mr. Brown was explain- 
ing to the philosophy class last night about coal 
gas ? Well, we can have lots of fun out of that ! Have 
any of you an old gun- barrel? ” 


ALL ON A SATURDAY. 


9 1 


Bert had ; and I had another. 

“ Can any one else scare up an old tea-kettle ? We 
shall want two.” 

“I can,” said Bert; “but what on earth are you 
going to do with a tea-kettle, Jack ? Not celebrate 
Boston Harbor, are you ? ” 

There was a laugh at that, in which Bert good- 
naturedly joined ; once, way back in the district 
school, he had been punished for declaring that the 
famous tea had been spilled by “ Pokey Hontas, 
chief of the Penobscot Indians ; ” and it was a stand- 
ing joke even now. 

“ Not exactly,” chuckled Jack ; “ I have, somewhere 
among my traps, an old balloon, as large as a hogs- 
head ; it struck me that we might blow it up, tie a 
lot of fireworks to a hoop beneath the car, and send 
it up at night. How’s that ? ” 

“ Can we do it, though?” asked Tom, doubtfully. 

“ Do it ! Why, we’ll take the tea-kettles, fill them 
full of powdered coal, and wire down the covers; 
stick the gun-barrels in the nozzles, and plaster clay 
all over the whole. Then all we have to do is to 
put them in a big fire, with a tube, an old hose, or 
something of that sort that will lead the gas away to 
a safe distance, and we can store it in a condenser 
till we get enough. That is, if the whole thing doesn’t 


9 2 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


blow us all to the North Pole together,” he wound up 
coolly. “Hullo, though! What’s that? Fred, my 
love, just run up the bank and take an observation ; 
I heard something!” 

I scrambled up the steep incline, gave one look, 
turned, and came down at full jump, landing all in 
a heap. 

“ Boys ; there are more than forty girls not five 
rods off, and heading — straight — this — way!” 

There was a panic; instinctively we turned to Jack; 
he was equal to the emergency — he always was. 

“Quiet! quiet! under the bridge, fellows,” he 
uttered, gliding into the water without a splash. 
“Quiet! quiet!” and he ducked under the surface 
and vanished from sight. 

Without a sound we slipped into the water after 
him, clutched desperately at our noses as we ducked 
our heads under, and disappeared in turn beneath 
the old stringers which had sagged until they were 
within an inch or two of the foam-flecked current. We 
often had practised that while playing “Indians,” and 
not a ripple was left to tell the tale to the passer-by. 

Stray fragments of talk now came wafted through 
the still air. The fence cracked ; a scream followed a 
louder crash, and then a chorus of laughter. Some- 
one said something that we did not catch, and then 


ALL ON A SATURDAY. 


93 


there was a jumble of words, so tangled that there 
was no connection ; Tom irreverently called it 
“gabble.” We could tell by the sound that they 
were coming toward the stream, and a curious 
hush fell upon the group of boys beneath the 
bridge. 

School-girl gossip like a flood of sunshine came 
down in a steady flood, and not a few remarkable 
opinions, which we hugely relished. “ Oh, girls ! ” — 
we started convulsively, for it seemed over our heads 
— “ girls, come here, quick ! Oh, what a lot of check - 
erberries ! ” 

Tom groaned softly. 

“ Now that they’ve found that knoll, they’ll camp 
down for the next hour! What’ll we do, Jack ? I’ve 
got a big cramp in my left hip already.” 

Jack glared at him and shook his head — there was 
just room enough beneath sleeper, plank and water 
for him to do it in — and Tom subsided; but we might 
have made a small earthquake under there for a 
moment or two, unnoticed, for the screams of delight 
overhead as each one plumped down where she 
thought were the best pickings, were astonishing. 
Then there was silence for a minute, as they got in 
some steady work. 

“What was that about your scare, last night, 


94 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


Carrie ? I heard a little of it at second-hand,” said 
somebody. 

Jack gave a curious little start, and turned half 
around as' though he would have run if he could; 
then he settled back again. 

“ Oh, did you hear ? I was so frightened ! ” came 
down in a shuddering tone. “ It was down below the 
railroad, at Alder River bridge ; I had been up by 
the Russells’ you know, after some ferns and things, 
and had my apron full of acorn-cups, and bits of bark 
to make brackets of, and a beautiful great piece of 
birch-bark for pictures; I was crossing the bridge, 
singing away to myself, when one of those dreadful 
river-drivers — a Frenchman, too! — came up and 
spoke to me, and oh, how I did scream ! and dropped 
my things right in the road; and girls,” she added 
solemnly, “I — really — believe — I — I was almost 
dead with fright when that dear blessed Jack Arling- 
ton came up the bank like a thunderbolt, with his 
face looking as mad as — as I don’t know what ! He 
never touched that fence when he came over, and 
the Frenchman walked on. I don’t suppose he meant 
any harm by his good-evening, but I just trembled 
like a leaf; and Jack was so kind !” 

Oh for a chance to laugh ! There was a sensation 
under that bridge. Poor Jack"! his face was as red 


ALL ON A SATURDAY. 


95 


as fire as we all turned and smiled at him. 

“ So kind ! ” I murmured. 

Souse went my head under water, without the least 
warning, with a strong hand on the back of my neck, * 
and both^eyes and nose filled and smarting. Well, 
he plays with the tiger who jests with royalty; so I 
struggled up in silence in order to hear more. 

“ Oh, I wish, I wish you could have seen him, 
girls ! ” went on the enthusiastic little chronicler 
overhead. “ He looked so splendid and brave ! He 
was wet, and muddy, and fishy too, and he hadn’t 
any shoes on either; but he looked just like that 
picture of St. George for all that ! ” 

There was a giggle. “ O Carrie, you’ll be the 
death of us yet, with your hero-worship ! 

“ You needn’t make fun of him ! ” cried the little 
maid, wrathfully, stamping her foot with vexation ; 
and turning away from the scoffers in a pet, she sud- 
denly ran down upon the rickety old bridge. The 
weight was more than it could bear, and down it 
sagged, almost into the water. One beam hit Jack 
squarely on top of the head, and Carrie unconsciously 
ducked her preserver as unceremoniously as he had 
me. I felt quite happy for several moments. 

There was a subdued smile around me; it was 
becoming too ridiculous ! 


9 6 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


“ How queer the water gurgles ! ” said some- 
body. 

The “ gurgle ” grew louder, considerably. 

“ Yes, just see ! ” said Carrie ; and to our horror 
she began to teter up and down, making the old 
bridge crack, quiver, and splash the water in the 
centre of the stream. There was a scramble toward 
the sides on our part; we knew too well how frail it 
was. But we were too late ; a rotten old plank split 
in two just under her feet, and down they came with 
a scream upon Bert Edwards’ broad back as the 
girls rushed down to her assistance, and then cr-r-rack ! 
crash ! splash ! came the whole thing down upon our 
heads, stifling, ducking us without mercy ! 

“ Quiet ! quiet ! ” warned Jack, under voice, in the 
orchestra of screams from the bank; and swimming 
swiftly and silently under water, gliding like white 
shadows out of darkness, we faded away into the 
dense shade of the woods in the stream below. If a 
legion of Indians had been after us we could not have 
thrown in an extra stroke, neither have stayed under 
a fraction of a second longer. We just threw up our 
heads for a breath, and then ducked like muskrats 
again, until we were at least a hundred yards away, 
and around three bends; then Jack called a 
halt. 










ALL ON A SATURDAY. 


99 


For the second time that day, we dropped upon the 
sward too much exhausted to do more than puff 
and laugh. 

“ What shall we do now, Jack?” demanded Bert, 
as he gazed around at his dripping fellow-mariners; 
“ all our duds are up in the old bush ! ” 

“ Let them stay, they are safe enough ; and we can 
go back after those precious checkerberries are 
eaten,” Jack answered with a laugh. “ See ! there is 
a piece of the old bridge now.” 

We gazed with interest at the wreck as it drifted 
slowly past, shied a club or two at a frog which had 
gone a-voyaging on a floating board, and then fell to 
comparing bumps. We all had them; I got off very 
lightly, but some of the boys had bruised heads to 
show. We had a round laugh over Bert’s, for he had 
two broad scratches, running from between his shoul- 
ders the whole length of his back, where Miss Carrie’s 
little boot-heels had glanced along. 

We lingered an hour or so, talking over the stam- 
pede, and then Jack sent three of us up to investigate; 
we found the coast clear, and signalled to that effect, 
which brought the rest up in high glee. It did not 
take long to dress, and we were soon marching down 
the road, the wounded with bandaged heads, and all 
discussing Jack’s new idea. 


IOO 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


It was adopted, of course. That was a foregone 
conclusion ; and we voted to have everything at the 
old mill ready for work by the third of the 
month. 


CHAPTER VI. 


CELEBRATING. 

F RED ! Fred ! ” The whisper came softly across 
the aisle as we took our seats for recitation in 
Virgil one morning. 

“ Yes ! ” with a swift glance for clanger ; whisper- 
ing was taboo. 

“ I want to see you a minute at recess ; can 
you — ” an abrupt stop ; we dodged into our books 
just in time to escape a reprimand. 

As the teacher slowly promenaded down the room 
again, with his hands behind his back, and gazing 
msditaiingly at the ceiling in the neighborhood of 
“ Rogues^Corner,” which had during the morning 
acquired a curiously warty appearance, I hastily 
nodded assent and resumed my Latin. 

When the twenty-five minute recess came, I strolled 
carelessly over by one of the corner windows. Katie 
presently came over. 


IOI 


102 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


“ Now then, Katie, what’s the axe ? ” I a§ked mis- 
chievously. “ You girls never condescend to be 
particularly friendly to a ‘Miller’ unless you have a 
little hatchet to grind and I gave a longing look 
out at the ball-ground. 

Katie set her pearly little teeth for a moment, but 
bethought herself in time to remember that I didn’t 
take kindly to scolding, and came to the point at 
once with commendable frankness and courage. 

“Yes, I have an axe, Sir Civility, and it is very 
dull indeed. Fred, we girls want to be included in 
your Fourth of July. Now don’t open your eyes so,” 
she added a little confused. “ Did you never think 
what a dull time of it we girls always have ? It’s just 
noise and powder-smoke all day, and somebody’s 
burned fingers to do up. I’m tired of it, and it’s 
been unusually dull for us this summer, and I thought 
I would just come and ask you about it. I always 
feel, Fred, that a girl can rely on you, if there is real 
need. And I do want you to consider us now.” 

Katie’s soft, dark little hand on my arm quite be- 
wildered me. But I thought upon the tea-kettle bal- 
loon ; and besides, there were old accounts to settle. 
“ Have you forgotten last May so soon ? ” I asked, 
grimly. “ I seem to have a dim remembrance of 
various snares against my own personal peace of mind, 







CELEBRATING. 


I0 5 

and all the more vividly that I but very narrowly 
escaped ! ” 

“Yes, I know; but still you did escape!” and 
here Katie laughed regretfully, without a sign of con- 
trition. “ And that being the case, you ought not to 
bring that up against me now, when I come to you in 
honest need. Won’t you please, Fred, be our friend in 
this matter ? ” she asked wistfully. “ I know it may 
seem a great deal of trouble, but it is so dull.” 

This was very hard work for the proud Katie, with 
me looking at her, and never helping her at any of the 
pauses and dashes. She ended with a little angry 
stamp, and turned to the window to hide quick tears 
of disappointment. 

“ O Jupiter Pluvius, don’t do that ! ” I cried. 
“ Really, I’ll do the best I can for you, but I’m only 
one, and the boys have a plan already, and it can’t 
be made to include girls. So you mustn’t feel too 
sanguine — net for this year.” 

Just here the bell rang, and I — really I felt like a 
monster in human form as I saw Katie wiping her 
black eyes so pathetically. “ But cheer up,” I add- 
ed. “I’ll talk to Jack, and between us it will be 
queer if we don’t find something for you; I have 
thought what a deprivation it must be for a girl to 
spend her days here, especially for one altogether 


io6 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


too dignified to flirt, and concoct mischievous little 
schemes of her own ! ” 

Katie flashed her eyes at me for my impudent 
speech, but still gave me a grateful look as s he went 
to her seat, and I felt for a few moments quite satis- 
fied with myself ; but I soon began to realize what I 
had promised, and the obstacles ; and the longer I 
thought, the less I liked the situation. 

“ Confound it ! the boys will think me a soft if I 
hint at such a thing ! ” It takes such a deal of 
courage for a boy to openly do certain gentle, kindly 
things. His fellows are merciless. Had I had only 
a sister, or even a cousin, to put in a plea for, it would 
have been a different matter. But for Katie Powers ! 
I laughed aloud helplessly at my own plight ; which 
feat, by the way, cost me six marks. 

“ What on earth are you about ? ” whispered Jack 
hurriedly, catching up his favorite inkstand to save it 
from my vandal hands, as I was abstractedly cram- 
ming it full of bits of paper, shredded fine. 

I told him after school. 

“ Not a bad idea,” he mused. “ The fact is,” he 
added confidentially as we were packing up our books, 

“ the city fathers — that is to say, the selectmen, 
have sat down on our plan and flattened it completely. 
How they heard of it is more than I know, but hear 


CELEBRATING. 


107 

they did, and they say that there is danger of our bal- 
loon’s coming down on a house-top or a haystack, and 
celebrating in quite another fashion. In this opinion 
I am inclined to think they are more than half right. 
I say ! ” he cried suddenly, “ how would it do to take 
Newt Larkin’s boat and row the two clubs up the 
river among the islands for the day, taking our fire- 
works of course ? The bateau will just about 
hold us.” 

The plan looked inviting ; but I declined to com- 
mit myself until we had sounded the boys, for our 
celebration had not been confined to the Millers’ 
Club. 

There was a jolly storm ; the outsiders went off in 
a towering rage against the selectmen, the girls, and 
the world in general. Our fellows were reasonable, 
and only grumbled. Anyway, it could not be helped, 
for the bateau would be a snug fit for the two clubs, 
without any room for other folks. The girls were in 
high glee, and voted to bury all hatchets straightway. 

The Fourth dawned — it usually does, I believe — 
and was ushered in with martial salutes. The crack- 
ers fizzed and cracked, the rockets hissed, and the 
cannon roared upon the green until it burst, nearly 
sending Jack and me to “ The Land o’ the Leal” as 
we sat on the fence near by, a hundred-pound frag- 


108 THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 

ment crashing through the slats within six feet of us, 
and bringing up against an elm. 

At the proper hour the two clubs met at the boat. 
We took our places at the oars in true Eastern 
style, amid a flourish of trumpets and a chorus of 
squeals, and Jack kicked over his dinner-pail. We 
expected that. Some one’s provision-chest must be 
sacrificed at the outset of every picnic to appease the 
fates, or dire would be the consequences. The boat 
was just large enough — a great river-driver’s bateau, 
sharp at both ends like a whale-boat, clumsy-looking 
but safe ; made to fly like a duck over rapid and 
white water with a dozen or so of red-shirted lumber- 
men making it quiver beneath their strokes. It 
quivered now, too, for we had rowed together before, 
and with Katie at the' helm we surged up against the 
current manfully until — gr-r-r-ride went the keel 
along a bar, when the mortified helmswoman was 
superseded without delay by Charlie. We boys had to 
out, though, and shove off, after which we proceeded 
without accident. 

There was no such thing as silence aboard, and 
only once, as we turned into a shady creek, was there 
a break in the steady chatter; then May Wylie turned 
around for a last look across the river, and caught 
sight of something flashing in the light among the 


CELEBRATING. 


109 

islands where the sun glinted along the water. We all 
turned and looked at it — a long, low boat with two 
persons in it, sitting almost at the level of the stream. 

“ It’s that new double canoe of the college chaps, 
I take it,” remarked Tom, gazing with an admiring eye 
after the flying craft as it shot in behind the bend. 
“They say that it’s made of sheet iron, with gas tanks in 
the ends ; goes like sixty, doesn’t it ! ” The next mo- 
ment the boat grounded, and we forgot all about it, for 
we were at our landing. 

“ Eleven o’clock and dinner-time ! ” 

Of course that was Bert ; but none of us were sorry, 
and while I started a fire, and the girls “ set the table ” 
under a tree, the rest went foraging. Susie and I 
were to make the coffee, boil the eggs, and get dinner 
generally ; but I had to do most of the cooking after 
all, for she was not up to camp-life, although rather 
proud of her accomplishments indoors. 

What charms there are in true al fresco dining ! 
What grand appetites ! what berries, with the dew of 
the bushy dells still on them, and fish that leaped 
and surged around the lines within the half-hour ! 
Who ever thinks afterward of aught but the pleasure ? 
Who ever remembers the great army of the uninvited 
— the spiders, the fuzzy-legged caterpillars, the big 
blue flies that whirred around in tne sunsmne e^ery- 


I IO 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


where ? I do remember one thing, though : those 
sapient girls spread their cloth and laid out the 
feast directly over some ant-hills ! 

After dinner, games. There was a cool breeze 
from the river, and the spot was shady. 

“ I Spy,” all over the little island, “ Chase the Squir- 
rel,” “Copenhagen” — for which we had brought a 
clothes-line — followed one another in quick succes- 
sion; and finally Jack brought to Carrie a long pack- 
age. After some urging she shyly opened it, produced 
a tiny violin and struck up a lively waltz. 

This was a surprise. Not one of us, strange as it 
may seem, had even heard of that violin. Evi- 
dently not all of our chief’s goings and comings 
had been made known to the club. There was a 
bright color in his cheeks, as well as in hers, as we 
gazed at them both in silence. How astonished 
Katie Powers looked, for instance. But the tones were 
sweet, true and irresistible. We sprang into line for an 
old-fashioned “ Virginia Reel ” upon the green, and 
Carrie sawed away with an energy that quite overcame 
her natural shyness, and set us all a-laughing. 

Then we sat down for a rest under the trees, and 
tried something quieter. Forfeits were vetoed ; so 
fishing out an old writing-book from my pack, and 
using plates and water-worn driftwood for tablets, we 


ON THE ISLAND, III 



% 








































CELEBRATING. 


113 

tore out several leaves and started a game of 
“ Artists.” 

First we each of us drew a sketch — queer enough 
the sketches sometimes were — illustrating a quotation 
or an event in history or fiction. Then they were 
passed around, and each one in turn wrote at the foot 
of the page a conjecture as to what was the artist’s 
thought, and folding it over that the next might not 
see, just as in “ Consequences.” 

What wild shots were made ! Fannie Mason was 
the most aggravating one in the crowd, for she quoted 
from speeches that never existed, and lines of poetry 
never written, until we rose in our might and called 
her a fraud and a humbug ! 

She made one fair hit, however; it was a little 
darky running for dear life toward a fence at a de- 
spairingly long distance away, with a mad bull 
after him — the whole illustrating the first half of 
the well-known line, “ Millions for de-fence, but not 
one cent for tribute ! ” 

The day wore on, as the best days will. Noon had 
become afternoon, and then came sunset and twilight, 
and we boys, setting up a board for a stand, sent off 
rockets, pin-wheels and Roman candles ; and when 
the last cracker had cracked, and the last fiery 
meteor had hurtled upward with its startling rush. 


H4 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


burst, and vanished, leaving a shower of golden rain 
drifting slowly down the tranquil sky, we stepped 
aboard once more and shoved off. 

Jack steered this time, with Katie and Carrie in 
front of him ; I was stroke, Tom and Susie just 
behind me, and Bert and Charlie were lost some- 
where forward among the girls ; it was growing rather 
too dark to see. 

We did not row, merely steadying the boat with 
a stroke or so, and in the deeper water drifted with 
the current down between the dusky shores. The 
waters lapped with soft ripples against the oars, and 
the faint wind whispered from the tall grasses along- 
shore, while far overhead a solitary night-hawk wheeled 
in unseen circles, sighing in saddened minor : “ De-ar ! 
de-ar ! ” 

Jack drew out his flute and joined the hawk ; then 
through the darkness rose the long slow notes of 
that sweetest of twilight songs, Ave Sanctissima , voice 
after voice softly creeping into the strain. 

Then silence fell. Dreams came fast, unbidden, 
until it all became a dream. A voice whispered a 
note of poetry from the stern ; it was Katie ! She 
was leaning over the side, and trailing her fingers 
through the limpid water, watching the lights on 
shore. 


CELEBRATING. 


”5 


“ She has said ‘ yes,’ and the world is a-smile ! 

There she sits as she sat in my dream. 

There she sits, and the blue waves gleam 
As the current bears us along the while, 

For happy mile after happy mile, 

A fairy boat on a fairy stream.” 

I laughed aloud. I really couldn’t help it, it was 
so ridiculously sentimental, and so astonishing when 
one considered that it was Katie Powers. And Kate 
was affronted. She turned away, roused from her 
happy mood, saying something that I did not catch 
as I was giving a stroke at^ny oar. 

“O Kate, no!” said Carrie softly, “ don’t say 
that ! ” 

There came a slight splash up among the islands, 
and a curious rushing sound. We turned our eyes 
toward it, but could see nothing but black masses of 
shadow, blacker than the dark. 

Sudden as the flutter of a bird, out from the 
narrow channel among these islands came the long 
sharp craft of the collegians, straight as an arrow, 
almost with an arrow’s flight. For one brief instant 
its dark form hung like a shadow in our range of 
vision, a brief instant, long enough for a gasp of 
horror from the watchful. Then crash ! came the 
cutwater, smashing into our side, crushing in a whole 


Il6 THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 

plank, striking with an upward cast the seat right 
under Susie Waters, and sending her flying directly 
over Tom’s head into the river. 

The cry that shrilled through the night was heard 
a mile away. Then came the gurgling rush of water, 
and the boat was full. 

“ Into the river, boys ! ” cried Jack, dropping over 
the stern himself. “Jump in, and hold on to the 
gunwales — where’s Susie ? ” 

“ Here !” spluttered Tom as he grasped at a thole- 
pin, with his other arm around her, and shaking the 
water from his eyes after his sudden header, while 
she, forgetting their chronic quarrel in that moment of 
terror, was clinging fast to his neck. “ Here, safe 
and wet. Quite comfortable and happy, thank you; 
but what in thunder shall we do now? ” 

For once our chief was puzzled ; the girls were 
safe, for the boat was so buoyant as easily to float 
them, now that we were out, although the water was 
waist-deep in the boat where they sat ; but rowing 
was out of the question. 

The canoe did not seem to be injured, but both 
its rowers had been thrown out by the . shock, and 
now were clinging desperately to the oars, one of 
them pouring out a torrent of words very disagreea- 
ble to hear. 


SUDDENLY CAME THE .LONG SHARP CRAFT OF THE COLLEGIANS. 






CELEBRATING. 


Il 9 

At last Bert Edwards turned on him, fairly roused, 
with the drawl gone from his voice, and in a tone 
that rang like steel : 

“ Hark you ! through your rascally clumsiness we 
have got into this scrape, and yet you can do noth- 
ing but swear ! If I hear another word of this out 
of your mouth I’ll duck you till you can’t see ! Let 
go of that oar ! ” 

“ Don’t drown me ! ” cried the fellow in mortal 
terror, “ I can’t swim ! ” 

“ What business have you in a boat, then, you 
idiot ? ” And Bert, taking him by the collar, wrenched 
him from his hold. The man fairly howled, but his 
captor had not the slightest intention of ducking 
him. He dragged him to the side of the bateau, as a 
safer support than the oar, which was fastened to the 
canoe. He then went back for the other, who had 
not spoken a word thus far ; he seemed rather dis- 
gusted with the cowardice of his friend, and declin- 
ing assistance, proposed climbing into the canoe and 
towing the other boat ashore. As nothing better 
was proposed, the twain were, separated with some 
difficulty, the “ Copenhagen ” rope brought into 
requisition, and after twice pulling back the collegian 
from climbing into the bateau, threatening him with 


120 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


condign punishment if he tried it again, the bateau 
was slowly towed to a bar. 

After that first scream the girls did wonderfully 
well, sitting down on the bottom of the boat as they 
were told, although the water was deep therein, and 
altogether showed remarkable self-control. Katie 
did not scream at all, and only long afterward con- 
fessed that she was frightened. She treated it then 
like a grand good joke, for “ if there had been a 
panic, you know, what would have become of us? So 
I laughed — that was all I could do.” 

That was a great deal, though ; not every one 
would have thought of it. 

But Katie — well, she thinks of everything ! She’s 
the only girl I know who ought to be a “ Miller,” 
and — a boy ! 


CHAPTER VII. 

IN SHADOW. 

D AY before yesterday, Tom Wylie came rushing 
out of an office on State street, with a paper 
in his hand, and his face glowing with excitement. 
Waving it enthusiastically over his head, he pounced 
upon me with a cheer, and dragged me into his sanc- 
tum. 

“ Hurrah for Zethel ! read that, my son, and pon- 
der!” 

“ That ” was a newspaper item detailing the cap- 
size of a small yacht upon the Horicon, with a freight 
of two — persons — and five ladies. The two creat- 
ures that called themselves men had swum for it, 
leaving their companions in the lurch ; but one brave 
girl, after assisting her companions to reach the keel, 
swam ashore with them , one by one ! 

The account was given without a word of comment ; 


1 2 1 


22 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


but the very silence of the editor seemed bitter sar- 
casm, as though no words of his could equal the 
simple statement of fact. 

“ Plucky for a girl, or a man either ! Still, what of 
it, Tom ? ” 

“ What of it ! Why, Susie Waters for a hundred 
thousand ! ” cried Tom. 

Sure enough, the next mail proved him right ; not 
that she said much about it — merely mentioning it to 
compare the scrape to our own Fourth-of-July upset, 
of sorrowful memory. But we could read between the 
lines ; and what a torrent of reminiscences the letter 
set loose, merry and otherwise ! 

It was one of the results of that upset that all the 
girls, save Carrie, who were in the boat that night 
learned straightway to swim ; and more than one of 
them have since blessed their stars that they knew 
how. A Boston lady who was summering at a private 
house taught them ; and although fresh water was a 
very different matter from the buoyant waves of 
Nantasket, yet she succeeded wonderfully, and two 
or three times a week a merry party trooped over to 
Kate’s. • 

The river was broad and gleaming, fringed with 
towering elms, studded with islands that were fairly 
walled with green, the dense jungle of river-drift and 




































































IN SHADOW. 


I2 5 


chokecherries matted and interwoven, and every- 
where twined the intricate cordage of the wild grape 
and clematis. 

Every bend had its long bar of hard sand, across 
which the limpid water rippled, soft and enticing to 
bare and pink little toes; and the old boat-house, 
almost in ruins from the riotous waves that tore 
through it in flood-times, served as a dressing-room, 
and its front platform as a stage from whence to dive, 
while it often swarmed with figures in the scarlet of 
the “gym.” 

The girls even set up a boat of their own, and, after 
upsetting once or twice in the middle of the river, and 
drifting down a mile or two before grounding upon a 
bar, they learned to manage it tolerably well, 
although, as they scorned advice, their oars entered 
and left the water like a flight of stairs, or an arith- 
metical progression ; but their souls were serenely 
above such lowly matters of detail, while to be allowed 
in the boat by themselves at all, made them so 
giddy that they challenged us to a race, and won it 
too ! It is true that a jacket marvellously resembling 
Bert’s got under our bows in some singular way and 
was towed there, but they were blissfully ignorant of 
that fact ; and there was something rather mysterious 
in Jack’s way of using the paddle in the stern. 


126 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


Another result of the collision was less joyous. 
Jack came to school one morning looking very sober. 
The laugh was gone out of his voice, and he did not 
whistle as he turned the corner; he was alone, too — 
Carrie was sick. 

What was the cause ? He did not know ; it might 
have been the shock that night, or the long walk 
homeward in her dripping state, or neither ; he had 
not seen her yet, but the black two-wheeled carriage 
was at the door, the doctor’s gig. The bell struck 
sharply with an iron clang that brooked no delay, 
and we Millers tiled silently in. The low hum of 
study began in the dim hall as seat after seat was 
filled ; but up beyond the gray pillar, in the little cor- 
ner of the massive chimney where the “ immortals ” 
sat, there were silent faces. Day after day there was 
the empty seat, the desk that no one opened. Katie 
brought us daily bulletins at first, and afterward we 
were allowed to see her for brief moments, and we 
had no fears then ; but the hopeful “ no worse ” 
imperceptibly glided into the sigh “ no better.” There 
seemed to be a listless drifting away of sense and soul, 
a never-ending weariness. Rest was all she asked for. 

“ I am so tired — so tired ! ” she would say, and 
look up at us so pathetically. 

Hand in hand with her the summer passed. The 


IN SHADOW. 


I2 7 


UNDER THE HONEYSUCKLES. 

trees began to droop, heavy with autumn fruit, and 
the roadsides were gay with golden-rod and asters. 
We made her constant visits. We brought fresh 



128 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


autumn flowers, and smiled, and tried to forget the 
inevitable. But Jack! They had been playmates 
from childhood. Jack had been her hero; none 
could mend her playthings like him ; none could 
carve toy tea-sets so deftly ; no one knew so well 
where the most beautiful May-flowers nestled in the 
grass among the knolls. She had always been deli- 
cate, and he was so strong and well ! She was help- 
less now ; and no task was so difficult, no search so 
arduous, but the merest wish would drive him half 
frantic till he found the means to gratify it. Even 
Katie was not as helpful, dearly as she loved her, for 
the river was between, and she had her own duties at 
home, while Jack lived in the next house. It was a 
relief each day when the morning greeting was over, 
as he came into the school-yard, never late, but rarely 
before the last stroke of the bell. 

We knew why he delayed. Morning after morning 
he wheeled her little lounge out upon the broad 
piazza under the honeysuckles, where she could look 
up through the curling leaves at the patches of blue 
sky and fleecy cloud, or watch the bees and 
sphinxes flitting among the yellow fire-throated 

trumpets while the faint perfume came floating softly 

% 

down. 

One day I remember very well : the school-house 


IN SHADOW. 


129 


windows were open, the south blinds closed. The 
breeze sifted through the shutters, lifted the loose 
paper upon the desks lazily, and let it fall again in 



TIIF. THUNDER STORM. 


the same places, too listless to waft it away. There 
was a languid hum of recitations, a weak effort to 
study. There came a low muttering, a rumble, dis- 
tance-faint, and the room grew suddenly dark. A 


! 3 o 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


sharp gust of wind hurtled across the hall. Jack 
looked up dreamily, his thoughts far away in bygone 
history, and glanced carelessly out of the nearest 
window. The dark-blue mountain wall had vanished, 
and in its place was one gray sheet of rain, rushing 
down across the valley before the wind. Crash ! 
went his book upon the floor ; his hat was snatched 
mechanically from its peg, and in an instant Jack 
was tearing out of the door like a whirlwind ; and 
when the startled instructor reached the porch he 
was fifty rods away, and running like a deer for home. 
They called him before the faculty afterward, and I 
was summoned as a witness ; but after all they were 
only men, and they merely requested him to ask 
leave next time, lest his example should prove de- 
moralizing. 

But with the cool autumn days came a slow color 
back to Carrie’s cheeks, and her transparent little 
hands grew less feverish, and sometimes a smile 
danced in her sly eyes. Katie said she was going 
to get well. The Millers’ Club held a grand cele- 
bration over the news, and so did “ Their Club” too. 
Jack was radiant ; and, almost in spite of himself, he 
again found his way to the Mill and the ball-ground, 
or strung his bow and ranged the silent woods. 

About this time, too, came the Trojan War. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


THE MULLEIN SPEAR. 

N OT the original war. That happened some- 
where in the neighborhood of two thousand 
years ago, more or less — rather more. This was a 
second edition on a very diminutive scale, something 
like looking at history through the small end of a tel- 
escope. 

Just how it began I hardly know, unless it was 
from a flighty remark of that doughty Miller, Tom 
Wylie, in the Virgil class, when he spoke in highly 
irreverent terms of my particular hero ; and the mat- 
ter did not drop when we left the room. Jack pro- 
posed arbitration ; but we declined to arbitrate, and 
he finally gave it up, called us a pair of idiots, and 
looked disgusted. I wanted To laugh then, and so 
did Tom, I think; but as he straightened up again, of 
course I did. We did not speak to each other that 
* 3 * 


I 3 2 


THE7R CLUB AND OURS. 


week. The quarrel spread among our special friends, 
until about half of the boys were at daggers drawn 
over the absurd question whether ^Eneas was a sneak 
and a weak scoundrel, or a persecuted hero and a 
demigod. I believe that one or two actually came to 
blows. 

One day, while trying to get a shot at a marauding 
hawk, and climbing about a rocky hill in search of 
him, I sat down on a ledge to rest, and pulled a last 
year’s mullein — there were forests of the dry stalks 
everywhere. 

It was rather warm, and I had a “ declamation of 
the brain,” which had been promised for the next 
meeting of the Millers ; and I began abstractedly to 
strip off the dry leaves and to hammer out the seeds 
upon the rock. The plant happened to have a long 
pointed root ; and as I muttered away at the speech, I 
took out my knife and began to trim it down. It 
proved to be extremely tough, and a dim comparison 
with the fire-hardened spears of savages crept into 
my mind along with the poem I was repeating ; and as 
I reached the lines — 

“ Strike ! till the last armed foe expires ! 

Strike ! for your altars and your fires ! ” 

whiz-z-z flew the javelin-like shaft at the menacing 


THE MULLEIN SPEAR. 


133 


head of a rotten stump. Straight as an arrow whis- 
tled the missile, and stuck fast in the wood at a height 
of some six feet from the ground. 

I looked at it with interest. If a light one would 
do that, what wouldn’t a heavy one do ? Hawk and 
declamation were forgotten together, and I hunted 
that whole hill all over, until at last a giant mullein 
turned up in an angle of the ledges, growing from a 
crevice. 

I had an idea, and was bound to push it. Under 
the hill was a corn-field ; picking up a pumpkin, as I 
crossed it, I stuck it on a stake, and with a bundle of 
mullein lances at hand, practised away at the yellow 
orb as long as it was light enongh to see, and that 
was until I could bury the head of a shaft in the tar- 
get three times out of four at fifteen yards, and twice 
at twenty. 1 was satisfied, and felt my future pres- 
tige secured. I could not help knowing that I was , 
the best archer in the whole school, for I was the 
most persistent in practice, beside having a certain 
talent that way. It is wonderfully pleasant to know 
that you have one gift that is your own, one in which 
you excel ; and I could appreciate the feeling that led 
an English athlete to exclaim that it was the joy of 
his life to know that he could thrash nine out of 
every ten Frenchmen in Paris. And he was not a 


134 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


quarrelsome man, either: it was merely the sense of 
power. 

Something of the same spirit filled me the next 
morning as I hastily ate my breakfast, and started on 
a run for the academy long before school-time. 

My big mullein caught Tom’s eye at once, and his 
love of a joke made him forget his vendetta. He 
was all interest and curiosity. 

“ What will you take for a shot at your hat with this 
thing at fifteen yards ? ” I asked casually. 

“ Drive ahead ! ” 

There was quite a crowd around us now, and I had 
to take a deal of chaff while Tom leisurely stuck the 
hat on a limb and paced off the distance, whistling. 

I toed the mark promptly, poised the redoubtable 
lance lightly in my hand, drew back a step and 
hurled it humming through the air. 

“ Thut!” 

Right through the centre on the tile was a hole 
large enough to put a fist in ! There was a laugh 
among the boys, and signs of a cheer. Tom looked 
ruefully at his damaged helm for a moment. 

“ Give me another shot, Tom ? ” 

“ No, by the Trident ! ” he said, rallying. “I’ll 
keep that hat there until I riddle it myself ! ” 

That was Tom all over. But he found it easier said 


THE MULLEIN SPEAR. 


J 35 



than clone, and at least fifty throws went wide or 
struck flatwise ; he persevered, though, in grim earnest, 
again and again, till at last a lucky shot passed 
through the same hole as mine, and he dropped upon 


i 3 6 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


the grass with a sigh of gratified relief ; after which I 
once more toed the line and in two consecutive throws 
completely demolished the crown, driving what was 
left of it a rod or two so upon the point of the lance. 
Tom wore that hat — that is, what was left of the 
brim — all through the fall, just for the fun of it. 

The others looked on rather blankly at our practice. 
They did not quite know what to make of it at first, and 
— practical creatures — asked what was the good of 
it. They found out. That very day Tom Wylie and 
Faffy Sintoes were to give a dialogue in Mr. Hall’s 
room — an elocutionary study from the Iliad ; and 
first a smile, then a snicker that culminated in a roar, 
went around when Tom came on the stage armed 
with a tin washboiler-cover and a mullein spear ! 

The parts were taken with great energy, and at the 
most exciting moment Achilles hurled his spear at 
Hector with such force that, flying past him, the sharp 
point sank deep into the soft pine door at the rear, 
and stood there quivering amid thundering applause, 
while the astonished and terrified Hector ran out of 
the room like a scatted cat, looking anything but 
heroic. 

“You see,” said Tom, explaining afterwards with 
a grave face, “ I thought he would look more natural 
if I didn’t tell him that part, for he might have 


THE MULLEIN SPEAR. 


1 37 


dodged too quick ; but I never thought he would 
really turn and run ! ” and Tom looked rather abashed 



AT A TARGET. 


at the failure of his novel hit in rhetoric. It was an 
absurd affair, and the master had all he could do to 


138 THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 

keep his countenance as he came forward to examine 
the missile. He did it, after a fashion, and published 
an edict then and there, as he marked the depth of 
the hole in the door, that all spears hereafter should 
be blunted. By way of a salve he suggested that in 
our Saturday holidays we might go through some of 
the scenes of the Trojan War. 

Now that was a genuine inspiration ! It gave us 
something to think of, insured us a tremendous lot 
of exercise, was likely to keep us out of other mis- 
chief for one while, and, besides, it set us all a-tingle 
to dive into our Greek and Latin. 

Such preparations ! The Mill looked like* an 
armorer’s forge, the man of pots and kettles was 
driven distracted by the sudden rush of orders for 
helmets, shields, and strips to manufacture into 
armor, and thought seriously of ordering a carload of 
tin to meet the demand. Our helmets were quite 
elaborate affairs, lined with flannel and cotton-pad- 
ded, with fencing masks in front, re-inforced with an 
extra gridiron, arrow-proof, as our bows were very 
light. Our shields were made of almost anything 
handy, from tin to leather, and highly decorated, 
while we all had short cut-and-thrust swords of hard 
pine at our belts ; and whole sheaves of arrows were 
made from the shafts of the aesthetic cat-tail, of 


LIKE A SCATTED CAT 













THE MULLEIN SPEAR. 


141 


clothyard length, by simply cutting it off at that 
measure, and thrusting a small nail, or winding a 
strip of soft lead around the larger end, filing a notch 
in the other for the string. 

It was very unfortunate that there was a split in 
the Club. Together we should, have been the “ In- 
vincibles ; ” but Tom was Greek to the marrow, and 
Bert Edwards followed suit, led on by his ambition. 
Towering head and shoulders above the rest of us, 
nothing would do but he must be Ajax. As he said 
himself, he was of no use in council, but in the field 
or at supper he would turn his back to none ! 

Tom grinned with delight, and promised him the 
appointment in the apportionment of parts, glad to 
get him at any cost. I vowed to myself, though, 
that he should pay for that defection ! Just wait 
until we are really afield, Master Ajax, and see ! He 
did. 

In one thing we were brothers still : we used the 
Mill as a common armory, and under the direction of 
Jack’s genius we all five had contrived complete sets 
of scale armor, manufactured by our united efforts ; 
and as they were the only ones in the two armies, we 
were the “ Invulnerables,” at any rate. We had the 
the honors, too, Tom and Bert being elected Ulysses 
and Ajax, Jack being ^Eneas, of course, and of course 


142 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


I was Achates ; while, as no one would be Hector, 
Charlie became Pandarus, which was a pretty fair 
showing. 

The girls were left out in the cold this time. All 
the leaders voted against them. 

“ It will only make trouble and jealousies,” said 
Ulysses with his accustomed sagacity ; “ we should 
hate to lose any if on our side, and Ja — a — JEneas, I 
would say, would fight like blazes before he sur- 
rendered them, and some one would get hurt in any 
case. Better have the ground in the Big Pines, and 
put them all up on the ledge where they can see the 
fight to their hearts’ content, and be all the saints and 
divinities in the calendar if they choose, and hospital 
nurses for both armies ! ” 

This was agreed to finally, and Kate had to be 
satisfied, although she scolded me well for not press- 
ing her claim, and vowed that if I fell under her 
hands she would show me no mercy. 

A code of laws and regulations was drawn up and 
ratified, in which it was provided that a hit in the 
body was fatal, unless the recipient wore scale armor, 
and entitled the giver to his opponent’s sword and 
shield — if he could get them — while the owner was 
obliged to remain where he fell unless carried off, being 
put upon honor to do so. Of course there were some 


THE MULLEIN SPEAR. 


143 


who tried to evade that ; but after the first skirmish 
or two the dishonorable were tried by court-martial 
and drummed out of the ranks ! 

It was also arranged that a hit in a limb disabled 
it ; if the owner could go off on the others he ihight ; 
and if not hit again, after receiving a bandage of red 
flannel at the hospital, he might join the fray again. 
A blow upon the head did not count unless the 
helmet had been smashed off or it knocked the war- 
rior down. 

Finally, it was voted by all that to lose one’s 
shield under any but very extenuating circumstances 
was a disgrace, and disallowed one to be carried in 
the future until won from the enemy, when the war- 
rior was to be publicly re-instated to his position. 

We found these to be very wise regulations — we 
owed them to Ulysses’ fertile brain — as they saved 
the battle from becoming simply a common row, 
dignified the whole proceeding, and gave a chance 
for real skill and courage. No one wanted to be 
disgraced — before the girls especially — and every 
spearman in the assembled host took the most 
excellent care of his skin in consequence. 


CHAPTER IX. 


IN TIME OF WAR. 

A GOOD many skirmishes occurred from time 
to time, as we tested our arms, making 
changes here, adding a scale or a belt there, drilling 
ear-holes to hear through in the helmets (that impor- 
tant point being overlooked in the original design), 
and bringing them to perfection generally. We had 
to get accustomed to them, too, so that it was some 
weeks before all was ready. 

There came a Saturday, at last, when all was still 
in the leafless woods. Not one mullein could be 
found upon the Zethel hills, nor a straight cat-tail in 
the swamps : they had gone to fill our bristling 
sheaves. 

There was a glitter as of burnished steel among 
the trees. Long files of warriors threaded the paths 
toward the Pines, and gathered in a dense throng 


144 


IN TIME OF WAR. 


H5 


upon the green little plain among the ravines. The 
girls were enthroned aloft upon the ledges of the 
overhanging mountain, the Law was solemnly read 
and sworn to, and the two armies took their stand at 
their respective stations, Jack — that is to say, 
^Eneas — and Ulysses drawing lots for choice. We 
were the fortunate ones, and took the “ defence.” 

It was a delightful place to stand a siege in. A 
turbulent stream tore down by our right, swollen by 
recent rains, and, after a sweep partly across our front, 
curved suddenly and went roaring under the cliff 
where the girls were posted. There were two gullies 
across the front beside, with a narrow ridge between 
where they did not quite meet, nearly in the centre of 
our line, and growing deeper at either end, while our 
left wing was posted in a huge mass of broken rock, 
covered with woodbine that served both for conceal- 
ment and as a ladder to climb around by, while the 
ravine on that side ended at its base. Altogether a 
strong position ; and every man of us had a bundle of 
light spears, and one or two heavier ones for close 
quarters. * My own was the same big mullein that 
started the whole affair, and the heaviest in the two 
armies. It was a great stroke of luck, my finding it. 

It was rather quiet at first, as we posted the differ- 
ent leaders and their divisions. There had been a 


146 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


tendency to howl when we came in sight of the camp- 
us, but now that we were actually waiting battle with 
a strong doubt as to who was likely to be the winner, 
Greek or Trojan, it had a sobering effect ; I could 
see more than one eye flash through the mask of the 
helmet as I passed on ^Eneas’ bidding, and the grasp 
upon the spear tighten nervously. I was chief of 
staff, and staff too, besides having a division of my 
own massed as a reserve behind the centre, ready to 
be sent to the aid of a hard-pressed leader ; so I saw 
a good deal of what was going on. 

Suddenly there was a stir among the lookouts at 
the centre. An arrow had leaped out of the covert, 
away across the glade, and clanged against a shield 
among them, and the glitter of helms was noted here 
and there. Jack broke from a conference abruptly, 
and ran up among them. The centre was our weak- 
est point, and here he had stationed my reserve divi- 
sion ; possibly the time had come thus immedi- 
ately. 

His appearance was the signal for a shower of ar- 
rows that completely cleared the rock of scouts, and 
rattled against his shield. They had a peculiarly 
vicious hiss — those arrows — they did not seem to 
be coming fast until they reached us, amKhen there 
was no dodging. Each man grasped a spear in read- 


IN TIME OF WAR. 


147 


iness, brought his shield in front, then lay low, await- 
ing the onset. 

There came a shrill yell from the enemy’s centre. 
At the signal, from the whole length of their line a 
stream of arrows came pouring in upon our centre, 
until we had to rally by fours for self-protection, for 
the shafts, converging, raked us from either side. 

Aineas had got behind a tree, and was coolly 
watching the trees across the green. “ Steady, boys, 
this won’t last long,” he said knowingly. “ They 
mean to charge under cover of it. Keep perfectly 
cool — perfectly, remember ! ” 

It was hard, though, to lie there with those arrows 
driving past, and not reply. I stepped forward to 
^Eneas’ tree, handling my shield rather nervously. I 
was hardly used to it as yet, and wondered whether 
my armor was really proof. 

“ Tsang!” 

I found out. A shaft struck me fairly in the side, 
and splintered on a scale ; but it hit hard enough to 
hurt. I got behind a rock rather hastily. I could hear 
yEneas chuckle, and I felt disgusted. 

And now, like a whirlwind, a whole division of 
skirmishers broke from the cover, charging across the 
open ground with their shields held over their heads, 
led by Meriones (Fred Winchester, with a horse-tail 


148 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


plume), and Ulysses himself. Not at the centre, not 
at the point so recently harassed, but straight at the 
unprepared left wing. 

But in a twinkling every man was on his feet, and 
a volley of spears sent more than one Greek limping 
back ; but, never heeding, the rest dashed on with a 
yell, and charged headlong up the rock. 

For a moment it seemed as though they would 
carry it, and a rush was made for the spot, promptly 
checked by the commander-in-chief, who, suspecting a 
trap, sent me hastily over to the right wing to in- 
vestigate. He knew the wily foe he had to deal 
with. 

So fiercely did the valiant Greeks storm the fort- 
ress that in a twinkling they had run up the vines 
like monkeys, and were fighting hand-to-hand across 
the top, while the clash and clang, the din of battle, 
rang loud and clear above the roar of the stream, and 
made many a heart leap and tingle. It was all that 
Jack could do to keep them from rushing to the spot 
in a crowd. But he had drilled them well, and not 
a man dared stir without orders. 

In the mean time it was getting warm about that 
rock ; nearly a third of ours were disabled, and went 
limping along the line toward the hospital as fast as 
they could travel, and already among our men could 


IN TIME OF WAR. 


149 


be seen the strips of red on arm or thigh of those re- 
turning. As I ran up from my scout I caught a 
glimpse of a Greek in complete armor hand-to-hand 
with an unfortunate son of Troy, saw him cast away 
his spear and grasp his enemy around the body and 
roll down, over and over, to the foot of the rock, and 
then fairly shoulder his prisoner and walk away with 
him. “ See that, Achates ? That was Tom Wylie,” 
said Jack, grimly laughing. “ What news ? ” 

“ I found the archers coming up the river ravine in 
force, and in our rear already ; but the bank is steep, 
and I sent Sarpedon back with his division — he can 
hold it awhile.” 

“ Good ! Take twenty spearmen and clear that rock.” 

In an instant we were in motion, sweeping down 
with yells upon their flank. They did not wait. A 
shrill whistle came from the woods, and, slinging their 
shields upon their backs, away the Greeks scurried 
across the glade, hotly pursued up to the very edge 
of the woods. Gathering up hastily the scattered 
spears and arrows, we ran back puffing, and were 
at once ordered to the imperilled right, where the 
noise, the clash of arms, and the shouting, betokened 
the hottest work. 

And now Jack had got a little impatient. We 
were having all the fun. He wanted a share. “ Here, 


150 THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 

you Pandarus, take care of the left, and keep your 
eyes peeled ! Glaucus, guard the centre ! Achates, 
follow me ! ” And, with a ringing cheer that reverbe- 
rated through the glens, he dashed away for the seat 
of war, closely followed by my whole division. 

Just in the very nick of time ! The enemy already 
had foothold and outnumbered us ; they swarmed up the 
steep bank among the trees like ants, and arrows fell 
like hail among us, and here and there came the dull 
clang of a sword-stroke. I felt for my own sword 
with savage fingers — no more long-range work for me. 
I had borrowed a bow for a time, and thinned out 
their sharpshooters considerably ; but this was earnest, 
and I kept close to my leader’s back. 

“ Hurrah ! down with them ! ” shouted ^Tineas, 
breaking through the rank to the foremost van. 
“ Hurrah for Troy, Hail Columbia and Happy Land ! 
Give ’em fits ! ” and he hurled his spear at a chief 
that was pressing us hard, striking him full in the 
breast; then out leaped his sword into the light of 
day and quivered above his head. Clang ! 

Down through the stormers fell the Achaian, 
sweeping a swath among them. A torrent of spears 
tore through their ranks, a score of sword-points 
bristled along the ridge. The patter of their javelins 
had ceased among us, as they were too near to throw. 















































































• 

• 


* 





• 




























































































IN TIME OF WAR. 


r 53 


Diomede was their leader, and wrought his name with 
an arm that never tired. 

But who could paint the glories of that fight ! Who 
could enumerate the mighty deeds there done by 
those who held, and those who stormed, the bank ! 
Above, eight Trojans lost their shields in that wild 
fray. Twice as many long-haired Greeks lay still 
beneath, yet the fight goes on. It spreads along 
the whole line, we hear the war-cries right and left; 
arrows from the centre pass over our heads hissing, 
and, as they fly, we hear the appalling war-whoop of 
that mighty Miller, Ajax, charging upon our front, 
secure in his armor, and dealing destruction. 

They gave it up, finally, and ran pell-mell down 
the ravine along a narrow ledge by the water’s edge, 
while once more we rushed back to the front, ^Eneas 
stopping on the way to pick up a few prisoners for 
future exchange, which were immediately paroled. 

“ Look out for Achates ! ” sang out Ajax, as I 
hurled a javelin at a reckless fellow standing un- 
guarded at short range. He fell, and all the Trojans 
shouted. Forgetting the danger, I ran forward to 
secure his arm, and was instantly surrounded by 
Ajax and his men. I was quick, and light of foot, 
but nothing saved me but my being left-handed. 
They could not parry my blows at all, while I dodged 


154 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


and twisted, smashed in helmets and doubled Up 
shields, until they fairly shrank away and left me for 
Ajax to settle. Then my hands were full. 

Bert wanted fame, and sailed in like a paladin, 
leading me a lively dance. My helmet was crushed, 
and a downright blow brought me to my knee in spite 
of a ready guard. I was so dizzy I nearly fell, which 
would have finished me, while the Greeks rushed for- 
ward in high glee. I heard a scream from among 
the girls upon the bluff, and the thought of failing 
there — I did not stop to reflect further, I would not 
fail ! 

Up went the sword again. Straight in under it I 
leaped with a lightning thrust at his stomach, and, as 
he instinctively attempted to parry, a blow right on 
the hilt of his weapon dashed it rods away — and now 
for vengeance ! 

But the Greeks were upon me again, and, as the 
champion shrank away rather crestfallen among them, 
I turned suddenly, and darted back across the neck 
amid a round of cheers. The first one I met there 
was Jack. 

“Well, Achates, you’ve done it, haven’t you ? One, 
two, three, four,” counting the results of my foray ; 
“ six of them settled ! ” and his tone betokened a 
great increase of respect. “But, I say, don’t try it 


IN TIME OF WAR, 


55 


again, for it was tremendously rash ; were you mad, 
that you tried to handle Ajax? Why, I shouldn’t 
care to, myself, while I am commander and responsi- 
ble for the rest of you ! ” And I daresay he looked 
indignant at my temerity, but as his helmet was 
closed it was lost on me. 

So was everything else for a moment or two. My 
head rang like an empty kettle with the stunning 
whacks of those villanous Greeks, and as I took off 
the battered tin pot that covered it, while we stood 
for a breath in a sheltered corner, I nearly fell. 

“ What is it, Fred ? Are you hurt ? Where ? Here, 
you two, take that hurdle and run up to the hospital 
with him, quick as lightning!” Jack cried, more 
frightened at my pale face than at anything else that 
day. 

I did not answer ; I think I must have fainted, 
more from sheer weariness than from any injury 
received, for I remembered nothing more until I sud- 
denly opened my eyes and found them staring straight 
up into Katie’s. For five or ten minutes I lay still, 
looking up in a dazed way as they bathed my face, 
trying to think how I came there, until Katie blushed. 
Then I concluded that it was all a dream, and rolled 
over to go to sleep again, when she gave me a pro- 
voked little shake that brought me to my senses. 


i5 6 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


Leaping up, I put my hand to my head ; it was bare, 
and dripping with water. A -shout came from below, 
and I saw the Greeks charging across the neck. 

It came to me then. I snatched up a Grecian helmet 
that lay near, Katie buckled it on, and I rushed for 
the ford, and met my followers, who had now to 
depend chiefly on sword and shield, being minus 
both spears and arrows ; but so were the Greeks. 

But that rest was a grand thing for me ! I felt like 
a new man. We three brother Millers gathered our 
divisions in the rear of the centre for a moment’s 
breath, then we ourselves strode forward and held the 
neck alone, shoulder to shoulder, in true knightly 
style, against all comers — only they didn’t come. 

Their spears did, occasionally, but I gathered those 
myself and distributed them among my men, keeping 
one or two for future use. Even Ulysses declined to 
meet us, and suddenly disappeared from sight, while 
the rest gradually withdrew, until Bert was left half 
way between the opposing armies, vainly urging them 
to return. They seemed to care very little for another 
advance like the last, and as we noted their dimin- 
ished numbers we sent up a yell. 

Suddenly a Trojan spear from somewhere on the 
left came humming past; I saw it one instant, the 
next it struck the Grecian on the crest, loosening 


IN TIME OF WAR. 


x 57 


the already weakened bands and knocking the bat- 
tered head-piece completely off. A shout of dismay 
burst from the opposite woods as the scattered Greeks 
saw their champion standing confused at the unex- 
pected blow. 

Now for it! I leaped to one side. With all my 
strength I hurled my heaviest spear upward — up- 
ward — curving gracefully. How anxiously I watched 
it — thud ! It struck the great Greek squarely in the 
ear ! 

Such a cheer ! the woods fairly trembled as I 
dashed forward, wild with delight, for my spoils. 
Every Greek in the line who had a spear or an arrow 
left launched it straight at my devoted head, and so 
fierce was the storm of missiles that I threw myself 
flat — but mind you, under me was the great shield 
of Ajax. 

“ Hurrah for Achates ! charge ’em, boys ! ” At the 
wQrd on rushed the Trojans like a whirlwind in a 
solid column. Springing to my feet, I found myself 
in the ruck of spears and clashing swords, swept 
along by the torrent and hurled right into the midst 
of the scattering Greeks. Thud! thud! tsang! 
dang! datter! Cut right, guard left, parry front, 
hurrah ! Down the glade, into the woods, through 
the gorge, we drove them, thrusting mercilessly at the 


158 THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 

rearmost, and with a wild cry swept them on and 
on through the ravine and plump into an ambus- 
cade ! 

That villain, Tom ! 

From every tuft of spruces along the slopes out 
leaped a warrior. They swarmed around us like a 
cloud of hornets, front and rear ; the air was full of 
sardonic laughter, and — the bitterness of it! — tri- 
umphant cheers. The day was lost ! 

I saw JEneas cleave the helmet of a stalwart Greek ; 
I saw Pandarus hand to hand with two warriors, each 
larger than himself ; then a dozen swarmed around 
me and I could see no more. Each strove to be the 
first to seize me, for I had wrought far too well that 
day to be forgiven. Better for them had they been 
slower, or at least accustomed to a left-handed 
swordsman, for I was mad with rage ! We had been 
so near to victory ! 

It was not play now. Shield over head, and sword 
in hand, I plunged into the fray, and what happened 
then was afterward all a confused chaos of blows re- 
ceived and given, of strange cries, of a sword rising 
and falling with monotonous regularity, of a frightful 
numbness in my shield arm, and at last a sudden 
rush backward that left me alone in the centre of a 
circle. 


ACHATES ARRIVES OM A HURDLE 











IN TIME OF WAR. 


161 


I glanced around, panting hard. Not one Trojan 
left ! The Greeks were victorious everywhere, save 
in that slender ring around me, leaning on their 
shields and breathing heavily, or exultantly shaking 
hands. 

I lowered my right arm, and at the motion my own 
shield fell from it and rolled away among the feet of 
the foemen, leaving the band still around the arm. 
I watched it with an odd regret, half-dazed, half-com- 
prehending. 

“ Now then, boys ! ” came a shout in my rear, and 
there was a rush for me at Diomede’s cry. I wheeled 
instantly, and ere the words were fairly out leaped 
straight at him like a wildcat ; he at least should go 
down first, and he did, with a smothered yell ; and 
then, with swift bound and parry, I broke through 
the ring and stood without it — free ! 

“Don’t let him escape!” was the cry; and a 
dozen Greeks or more shot out in pursuit. Never 
was running so hard. My heart beat fearfully and 
my temples throbbed. I, who could outrun any boy 
in town, was being rapidly overhauled. With set 
teeth I buckled down to my work, and, nerved by the 
need, shot ahead of them, heedless of the javelins 
that came driving past. Reaching the battle-field, I 
caught up the precious shield of the discomfited 


162 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


Ajax, who sat by the bank of the stream bathing his 
ear, with a look of profound melancholy, shaking his 
fist as I splashed past across. A bow and quiver lay 
near, and I secured them just as the pursuers arrived 
at the other side of the stream and paused irreso- 
lute. 

I heard a cheer upon the cliff, and knew that the 
girls were there, but I felt too sore to care now. Drop- 
ping my sword, I sent half a dozen shafts whistling 
across as rapidly as I could notch and draw, and was 
far too near to miss. 

They charged pluckily into the water, but the 
cobble-stones were slippery, and first one and then 
another went down, while my bow was not idle, and 
— well, only one reached the top, and he was minus 
sword and shield, lost in the rushing water. 

“ You are a pretty picture ! ” I could not help re- 
marking as I hauled him up by the collar wet as a 
drowned rat, sputtering and gurgling, nearly strangled 
by the water he had swallowed ; a remark which 
he made no attempt to deny. Giving him a mo- 
ment’s rest I marched him down the stream, my one 
solitary prisoner, until we came opposite the Achaian 
host busily dividing the spoils, with a disconsolate 
group of unarmed Trojans looking on. The battle 
was over, and, as some other vanquished leader has re- 


IN TIME OF WAR. 


163 



marked before me, all was lost but honor ; but I felt 
that I had honestly earned a fair share of that. 

As they rushed forward in a laughing crowd I held 


164 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


up the shield of Ajax and cried in classic language: 

“ Where is Ajax ? Where is Diomede ? Where 
is Teucer? Where Meriones ? Great hath been 
your victory, Grecians ! another such would be your 
ruin ! ” And with a defiant war-cry I slung the shield 
over my shoulder, dismissed my captive, and left, 
standing not upon the order of my going, for they 
were preparing to give me a volley for my impu- 
dence. 

So the battle was over. I have told it as I saw it, 
and the parts in which I was. There were other 
deeds of derring-do that far surpassed my own, but I 
did not see them, and the chroniclers were contra- 
dictory. If I have told too much of my own doings 
it is because of my position, and because I was so 
mixed up with the rapid flow of events. I will offer 
the testimony of an enemy, however, lest I be 
charged with egotism. 

Years afterward I saw hanging in a gentleman’s 
library a battered old shield, punctured everywhere, 
seamed and jammed with many a scar and dent; but 
on which was still visible a blue anchor, dimly 
painted, and under it the mystic legend • 

)Y4ttjs 


AXATRS. 




I stared at it with wide eyes, recognizing it in- 


IN TIME OF WAR. 1 65 

stantly, and involuntarily back went my head, and my 
left hand sought an imaginary sword-hilt. 

He laughed outright, enjoying my surprise : 

“ I was there. You were a stranger to me 
then, but my brother was a student and took me 
along. I was one of those whom you drove out of 
the rock-heap, and nearly broke my neck getting out 
of your way ; and was ‘ in at the death ’ when you ran 
into the ambuscade — helped surround you, in fact. 
That thing rolled under my feet when the strap broke, 
and I thought it a glorious prize then ! ” he added 
with a laugh. “ I treasured it as the highest I have 
ever won, and for old times’ sake have kept it ever 
since. See ! ” pointing at a dingy card hanging from 
it. Even at that late day a thrill crept over me and 
straightened my muscles suddenly, as, half-ashamed of 
my emotion, I read : 

“ This was the shield of Achates, the best spearsman in the 
Trojan host, who, after overcoming Ajax and slaying fourteen 
other Greeks in the following m£lie, was entrapped in an am- 
buscade by Ulysses the Crafty. 

“ From this, he alone, of all the Trojans, escaped by bursting 
through the ranks, overcoming Diomede and Teucer in the 
massacre, and the twelve who pursued him beyond the river, 
bearing away the far-famed shield of Ajax. His own shield was 
beaten from his hand in the ambuscade, and captured by a 
Grecian, who preserved it with great honor.” 


CHAPTER X. 


“they say ” (as related by Tom). 

HAT is Fred’s version of the story. Well, I be- 



X lieve he was something of a warrior, after all. 
And the rather absurd consequence was that the whole 
school rose to do honor to the vanquished ; and 
presently we Greeks grew as sore over it as though 
our side had lost the day, especially the great Ajax. 
He had the felicity of seeing his gorgeous shield slung 
over the club fireplace in the post of honor, sur- 
rounded by various other trophies that Fred had 
gathered on the battle-field. And then, too, his head 
ached. Fred is a pretty good hand at the spear. 

The girls all pounced on that young gentleman the 
moment that he entered the school-yard next Mon- 
day. They made him a wreath of ivy, compelled him 
to kneel while Katie put it on, stuck a hawk’s feather 
in his hat, hailed him “ heroic Achates, conqueror of 


i6 7 


“ THEY SAY.” 

great Ajax! ” and made a fool of him generally. He 
deserved it all, I suppose. Certainly no one else 



“heroic achates, conqueror of the great AJAX ! : ’ 

could have got out of our ranks scot-free ; but he is 
quicker than chain lightning, and left-handed at that, 



68 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


and Bert should have considered himself lucky at his 
escape from surrender, in spite of our rush to his succor. 

The party feeling ran so high, the girls developing 
such fierce partisanship, that Principal Gibson was 
wise in putting an end to our existence as Trojan and 
Greek. He declared that we had acted like a set of 
young Fijis, instead of comporting ourselves with 
historical dignity. 

But though we ceased to exist as separate peoples, 
days and weeks passed before there came an end to 
the last of the envies, jealousies and bickerings. I 
know I, for one, hated our old club-room. For, like 
the late war that left no privates, this one left no 
dead. Every warrior had at least one story to relate 
of his adventures, and a defence to make of his own 
prowess. 

But perhaps the most exasperating thing to us 
conquering Greeks was that not a solitary girl was on 
our side. They could not seem to assimilate that 
ambuscade stroke of ours. In their opinion, it was 
awfully mean of us, and we should be ashamed of 
ourselves for winning in such an underhand way — 
downright cheating ! They didn’t appreciate strategy 
worth a cent. They stuck to it that Fred was a first- 
class hero and Jack a martyr, while the Greeks were 
a set of long-haired rascals, anyway. 


6 9 


“ THEY SAY.” 

In vain we Greeks invited them to look at our gal- 
lantry. We had to do the storming while the Trojans 
had every advantage of position. We had charged 
them valiantly, met them man to man ; but, dear me ! 
it didn’t do a bit of good. We had beaten Jack, reg- 
ularly outgeneralled him. Fred had fought a dozen 
of us single-handed, and we were soulless renegades 
in consequence. ’Tis dangerous work meddling with 
people’s favorites ! 

It was long before we settled down again into the 
steady hum-drum of school-life. Sly allusions to 
some well-known incident would crop out, even in 
recitation, to set the school in a roar, while the weekly 
Lyceum paper found the Trojan war a mine of 
wealth. 

Principal Gibson ought to have suppressed that 
paper. All through the fight it had a corps of wide- 
awake reporters on the cliff, pouncing unerringly on 
every accident that might be made to take a ridicu- 
lous turn, and forged it into a shaft against which no 
armor was proof. 

And then, too, it was so out-and-out partisan. It 
was unblushingly Trojan to the marrow, and we un- 
fortunate victors had to do all the squirming, while 
the men of Troy were applauded to the skies. Fi- 
nally they threw their whole batteries into position, 


lyo 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


and enfiladed us with all the keen sarcasm and cut- 
ting wit peculiar to a company of bright girls when 
properly provoked. 

“ See here, Susie,” I ventured to remark one noon, 
after an unusually bitter personal attack upon myself 
in the Lyceum paper the evening before, “is this 
fair ? What have I done to be pitched into and fired 
out of the window in this fashion ? There was nothing 
underhand about it. Everything was above-board 
and according to the usages of war ; and if they were 
stupid enough to run into the ambush, they should 
stand the ridicule and not we.” 

Susie hesitated a moment. “ I don’t think it is 
the ambush itself, Tom,” she said, slowly, keeping 
her eyes out of the window; “ I am afraid you your- 
self are responsible in a great measure for that arti- 
cle.” 

“ I ! ” I cried, astonished. 

Susie’s face became scarlet. She bent over and 
fingered her locket, brushed away vigorously an im- 
aginary speck from her dress, parted her lips to speak 
and closed them again. 

“ I am waiting,” I suggested gently, after a long- 
silence, during which I had conned in vain my past 
record for any sin deserving such expiation. 

She looked up, suddenly, passionately : “I will tell 


“THEY SAY.” 171 


you, Tom, for / don’t believe a word of it; but the 
girls in our Club all declare that you kept out of the 



SUSIE SPRANG UP IN CONFUSION. 


fight, and planned an ambush because you were 
afraid to meet either Jack, Fred or Charlie, and that 


72 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


the only 7uay you dared was to take them at a sly ad- 
vantage. You haven’t been with the Club at all 
since the beginning of this Greek business, and they 
say that you have broken with them and are trying 
outside to undermine Jack’s influence in the school so 
as to be head of it in his stead ; that you are going 
all the time with Hi Randall and his set, and every 
other hateful thing that they can think of ! ” Her voice 
faltered as she went on with charge after charge of 
“ they says,” till, breaking off in the middle of a sen- 
tence, she dropped her head upon her arm and fairly 
cried. 

Slam went my books upon the floor ; I was mad, 
clear through. 

“ Who said that ? ” 

“ A-all th-the g-girls say-so.” 

“ Does Jack say anything of the sort ? Has it been 
discussed with him ? ” and a dreary feeling came over 
me with the questions. 

“ I don’t know,” she said, with her face still hidden. 
“ It isn’t like him, but neither is it like Katie. Yet 
Katie is as hard as the rest.” 

I rapidly thought it over. If this was to be the 
end of it all, 'if the Millers, had judged me thus, I 
might as well give up. I had seen all I wanted 
to of Randall and his set, and more too. I could 


“they say.” 


173 


only settle to the bottom like an agitated coffee-ground. 

“ Well, what are you going to do about it ? ” she 
queried, raising a tear-stained face. 

“ I ? What — oh, yes — I don’t know ! ” was my 
lucid response. 

“I know what I should do ! ” she exclaimed, with 
emphasis. 

“ What ? ” 

“Go to Jack and demand a trial by the Club ! ” 
she answered. “They have no right to condemn you 
unheard, and it may be a mistake after all. If folks 
would only speak right out, and not go on suspecting 
and thinking and hinting ! When Kate and I quarrel 
I always go straight to her afterwards and ask what 
the matter is, and if I am wrong I am not ashamed 
to ask her pardon. I don’t believe in pride that keeps 
one from doing that, and I never can read of any 
such misunderstanding without longing to box their 
ears all around. Come, don’t be a turkey now and 
stand on your dignity. I declare, if you do I’ll never 
speak to you again as long as I live, and I’ll — I’ll 
go myself ! ” 

I really think she would have gone. 

I gave a sigh of relief. It’s first-rate to have 
some one to decide for you sometimes. “ I — believe 
— I — will, Susie ” — 


x 74 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


“What treason are you two plotting now ?” 

There was Jack in the doorway. We had been so 
busy talking that we had not heard him, and there 
he stood in laughing astonishment at our excited 
attitudes. 

Susie sprang up in confusion, and ran out, dodging 
under his arm with a scarlet face, but casting at me 
over her shoulder a look so significant that it decided 
me to bring the whole miserable business to an end 
then and there. 

“See here a moment, Jack ! ” I said as he started 
to follow her. Something in my tone checked him. 
He looked back curiously for a moment, with his 
hand still on the latch, then closed the door and 
returned. 

“ All right, Brother Miller, fire away ! ” 

“Do you know what all the school are saying 
about us? ” I began, with forced calmness, and then, 
growing angry again, I ran rapidly over the line of 
Susie’s charges. 

For a moment Jack flushed high. But I went on, 
and Jack sat down and heard me through, my cheeks 
growing redder and redder under his quizzical eyes. 
When I finished he just threw back his head and 
to my great indignation burst into a long and hearty 
laugh. 


•ill! FRED, BERT, CHARLIE, CuME OVER HERE ! 












THEY SAY. 


77 


<< 

“ My dear knight-of-the-rueful-countenance ! what 
nonsense you are talking ! Great Scott, don’t you 
know us any better than that ? Here,” dragging me 
along out into the yard rather mulishly, “ Hi ! Fred, 
Bert, Charlie, come over here ! There’s witchcraft 
brewing against our most worthy chief jester ! ” and 
then as the Millers came sauntering up, he told them 
all about it. 

They laughed a little, and then Trojan or Greek 
began to turn decidedly wrathy. 

“ Confound those girls ! ” said Bert ; “ can’t they 
let well enough alone ? Let’s hold a council and give 
’em a lesson ! ” 

“Just let it die out,” observed Charlie sagely; 
“All Tom’s got to do is to frequent the Club a little 
more. Only Isay, Fred, you can take Katie in hand 
a little, and curb her wrathful soul. This is half on 
your account, — she didn’t fancy your having to cut 
and run so lively, and she knows a fellow or two 
made fun of you. She cares a heap more about that 
than you do, and it only needed the suggestion that 
Tom’s honor had exodusted along with your heels to 
stir her up right valiantly. She had you in the hospital 
to wail over too ! ” grinning at the thought until Fred 
was as rosy as a peony. Some things will make 
Fred Parker blush very easily ; but we have to stand 


< 7 8 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


from under when we do that thing, for he hits 
back. 

“ Let’s run over to Lisle Pond, and have a fish 
supper to-morrow night, like good old Club times,” 
suggested Bert carlessly. 

“Not a bad thing for Their Club to hear of,” said 
Jack; “ any objections?” 

Nobody objected ; and to-morrow night came.. But 
that was the last time that Jack ever called me 
‘chief jester.” 


CHAPTER XI. 

AT LISLE POND. 

C HARLIE was wringing out the water from the 
bottoms of his trousers-legs in the warm ra- 
diance of the big driftwood fire. Our old boat leaked 
like a sieve and had to be hauled out of the water as 
soon as we landed, to keep it from sinking. We had 
bailed all the way over. Fred, as usual, was frying 
fish. Our Chief sat down comfortably with his back 
against the huge log that formed the rear wall of the 
hasty fireplace, and wrestled desperately with a bat- 
tered old brass cornet with varying success ; now swell- 
ing visibly with triumph during a lofty flight of warbles, 
and then looking as disgusted as is compatible with a 
puckered mouth during a succession of efforts that 
ended with a squeak — which we all always ap- 
plauded. 

He did not mind at first. “ Hear that echo ! ” said 


179 


l8o THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 

he after a plaintive bleat. “ Isn’t it remarkable ? Hear 
now” — and he blew again. 

Whereupon the woods on the opposite shores sent 
back the maniacal laughter of a loon that came sail- 
ing up from the south at precisely the wrong time, and 
began to make night hideous with his long screams. 

“Very beautiful! ” remarked Fred across the fire 
gravely. “ Quite like an angel choiring with the cor- 
net, Jack.” And then he dodged just quick enough 
to escape a boot that rose from the sands and took 
unto itself wings. 

Jack turned good-naturedly to watch Bert’s absorbed 
marksmanship. That stalwart youth lay at full length 
upon the golden sand, drying off in the slanting rays 
of the half-hidden sun, and was on the point of taking 
aim for about the sixth time at a giant bullfrog lazily 
rising and falling with the rocking waves on a pink- 
ribbed lily-pad. Bert, lazy dog, always had his cat- 
apult at hand, and his shot-pouch full. The lead 
r-r-ripped vindictively through the leaf within an 
inch of the solemn-eyed batrachian, but the veteran 
never moved a peg. “ Hang it ! I couldn’t hit a 
barn ! ” drawled the disconcerted marksman amid 
a general laugh. Bert was notorious for his poor 
shots. “You needn’t laugh!” he said, a little 
vexed. “ I’ll stump any fellow here to hit him ! ” 


ON THE WAY TO THE POND 







































AT LISLE POND. 


I8 3 

Our catapults appeared as if by magic. A deliber- 
ate aim — tsang ! The shot cut out all around the 
target and tore the leaf to pieces without one hitting 
him. The old fellow coolly swam with a slow snort 
of surprise for another leaf, and leisurely climbed out 
on it as far as it would float him. 

“Oh, let him alone, boys,” said Jack: “we are 
having a good time,. and why shouldn’t he ? ” 

The sun had set, and the long shadows stretched 
away in streaks of inky blackness, with the flash of 
foam here and there as the short choppy waves began 
to leap and toss impatiently under the lash of the 
rising wind. An owl up in the birches gave a long- 
drawn, melancholy cry that far across the water was 
echoed from the mountain, along with the answering 
scream of a belated hawk as he swung slowly down 
his invisible spiral way and drifted rapidly away 
nestward, among the trees. There was a shiver in 
the air ; it cooled suddenly when the sun went down, 
and it was almost dark. 

Hark ! miles away a sound came trembling through 
the night along the hills. Faintly, a sighing rather 
than a sound, falling softly as the autumn leaves in 
the gathering twilight, came the slow, mournful toll of 
the deep-toned bell that hung in the village church. 

“Tol-1-1-1 — ! ” 


184 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


There was a silence among us. We looked at one 
another. A minute passed, then came again the 
note, swelling in the wind to startling distinctness. 

“Tol-1-1-1 — ! ” 

“ Who can it be ? ” whispered Fred, drawing closer 
to Jack’s side. 

“Hush!” said Jack softly, with his head averted, 
laying his hand gently on his arm. 

We drew closer to each other; instinctively we 
were each counting the strokes ; there was silence, 
broken only by the soft wash of the waves upon the 
sands, the rush of the pine boughs in the forest, and 
that solemn tol-1-1 — ! tol-1-1 — ! tol-1-1— ! tol-1-1 — ! 
swept past. 

Strange thoughts came to us waiting there. Who 
was it for ? Ah, did we not all know, yet shrink from 
uttering the name ? 

At last the sobbing died away. The wind came 
rushing over the lake, sighed and moaned about us 
in the pines, but the sorrowing bell had ceased its 
notes, leaving us still dreaming that we heard their 
muffled footfalls, still listening for more. There were 
no more. 

A single cry, sharp, bitter, broke on our ears. It 
was Jack. “ Sixteen ! Boys, it is Carrie ! ” 


AT LISLE POND. 


185 

“Oh no, Jack! she was getting well so fast!”' 

“It is Carrie ! Carrie ! Jack, our Chief, turned 
over and lay face downward on the sand. 

Sometimes I hear Jack’s low sob now, at night; 
hear that throbbing cry and shiver. It was torn out from 
his very soul right through the iron grasp of self-con- 
trol and Saxon pride. Girls can weep, and wail, and 
wring their hands until they are faint with the physical 
effort, and the bitterness dies out from sheer exhaus- 
tion of body and spirit, and none will look askance. 
But a boy among boys must hold his sorrow at bay 
in his own heart and brain, asking no sympathy, 
receiving none, fighting back his grief until the heart 
throbs dead, dully, and the brain is all but mad — 
without a cry ; and all to keep his self-respect up to 
an iron standard which he himself has made; to 
preserve unsullied his idea of manliness among his 
mates — and after all perhaps to be called thought- 
less, unfeeling, by people who have grown up beyond 
their memories ! 

Face downward on the sand, not another sound 
came from him, only now and again that sudden, 
sharp quiver, like the flash of a wounded nerve that 
struck him with a shock, and left him motionless 
when the spasm passed. 


i86 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


Fred got up and went over to him ; knelt — lay- 
down beside, and put his arm around him without a 



SYMPATHY. 


word; and the older lad understood, was grateful 
for the unexpected sympathy. But neither spoke, 


AT LISLE POND. 


187 


nor did anyone, for a long, long time, while the wind 
whistled among the trees, and swept the ashes of the 
fire away to leeward into the forest. The foam glit- 
tered here and there out in the darkness, as angry 
waves came leaping in higher and higher before the 
rising storm. 

At last Jack arose, dizzily at first, as though he did 
not quite know where he was nor how he came to be 
there, nor where he was going, but walking mechani- 
cally toward the boat. Fred went too, but Jack 
seemed unconscious of him. Even when he had put 
his shoulder under the quarter and shoved the bateau 
afloat we did not seem to notice that Fred had followed 
him aboard and now sat in his accustomed place in 
the stern ; but grasping at the oars he dashed them 
into the water, and strove to row away from his grief 
with mighty strokes that made the timbers creak and 
quiver, straight out from shore into the teeth of the 
darkness and the storm. We watched them — Jack 
bending low to his oars with a white, desperate look, 
Fred sitting upright in the stern, and with an easy turn 
of his wrist and paddle keeping the craft head to the 
sea. The next moment they run off and out of sight. 

Bert sprang up and heaped more wood upon the 
fire until it flared high in the gale. 

“ Fred can steer by that,” he said. 


i88 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


“Tom,” said Charlie to me presently, “Tom, that 
boat can’t live five minutes in this sea. It leaks like a 
sieve, and they’ll not stop to bail ; Jack won’t, and Fred 
can’t, so they’ll swing broadside to and roll over ! ” 

“If the Chief was alone,” said Bert, “he’d let it go 
down — and go with it! But when it comes to the 
point, Jack will hardly let Fred drown for him. He's 
not himself, but he’s not so far gone as that, and I 
am rather glad he has the storm to fight with heartily 
before he lands again. There’s a limit to even his 
strength and endurance, and when he fights to the 
uttermost and gives up, the bitterness will be half 
gone. See, what’s that?” 

Something black was tossing in the water, blacker 
than itself; it soon came in on a spiteful wave. We 
ran to the point. It was not the boat; it was the 
bailing-bucket a quarter full. Some ten or fifteen 
minutes later a hat and paddle came in. Fred’s. 

We scattered along the shore and kept watch. 
Suddenly Bert gave a great shout and rushed into the 
water. The boys had drifted ashore. Both. They 
were floating on the oars. Jack had his fingers locked 
upon Fred’s collar, looking white and weary. Fred 
had gone down once. 

Without a word we took them by the arms and 
stumbled along the path around the northern shore 


AT LISLE POND. 1 89 

until we struck the road, and the way was plain. 
Then I spoke to Fred in a low voice: “Is the Chief 
himself ?” And he answered in the same tone, “ Yes.” 

The boat had gone to the bottom, and neither 
Fred nor the Chief were at Carrie’s funeral, nor at 
school for many a long day after. And when they 
did return to us the snow had come and gone, and 
the early flowers — the arbutus and the violet — were 
blossoming in May. 


CHAPTER XII. 


the sugar thieves (as recorded by Tom). 
HAT was nearly the end of Club life among us 



A Zethel young folks. All winter long the mill 
stood silent and empty, with shutters barred and pad- 
locked doors. No red lantern of stormy nights 
swung its signal to the home circles. We had little 
heart for amusement without Fred and the Chief; and 
taking turns at watching with them was not partic- 
ularly cheering. The girls 5 club-room was equally 
silent. There was an empty chair now, which would 
never be filled again by the sweetest, gentlest of all the 
merry Petticoat Nine. Besides, without Katie Powers 
at the lead, there could be no junketing and outings, 
and Katie had no heart for anything of the sort. 

But the winter came on and dragged away; and 
quietly, almost without our consciousness, the grief 
grew less. The boys were slowly on the upward 


THE SUGAR THIEVES. 


T 9 X 

road ; we no longer looked sober when returning from 
their bedsides, and sometimes Katie could smile. It 
had been long since she did that. I laughed one 
day ; it startled me, and I looked reproachfully at the 
jester. But it was easier next time. To some of us 
the sorrowful look still came at times, and a silence 
would fall in the midst of the merriment as we saw 
Katie or Susie stealing away with downcast eyes and 
tears trembling among their lashes. No one ques- 
tioned why, nor was it openly commented on ; only 
a sigh in answering sympathy, and soon forgotten. 
Young hearts rise rapidly from the bitterest grief, and, 
like a bowed sapling, the heavier the burden some- 
times the sharper the recoil ; and when at last March 
came — March, with its long coasts, its miles on miles 
of glittering, crispy crust over hill and hollow, fence 
and wall — the most of us laid our sorrow in its grave 
away, plunging anew into life’s gayety. 

It was but just daylight one morning, and all the 
mountain tops were flushed with tender rose above 
their whiteness, and from the trees hung drooping 
boughs; every twig bejewelled. It was dark still in 
the bottom of the valley, underneath the overhang of 
the mountain, and the crust gave a sharp crisp gride 
under an iron-shod heel. It was chilly, but I heard a 
bluejay’s rattling scream from the corner of the barn 


192 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


where a trace of corn was hung for our feathered 
friends. 

The middle coast was crowded ; I could see scarlet 
hoods flashing down the slope in the distance, and 
worked my way cautiously thither, now dodging a 
double-runner as it glanced down the hill with the 
rush of a whirlwind, striking its bell of warning, and 
again making way for some long, low sled, with a 
fair-haired, radiant-faced girl in front, and a snapping- 
eyed youth in fur cap and mittens looking over her 
shoulder with a fixed, intense gaze after breakers as 
he steered with ready heel past ambushed stump and 
lurching hollow. 

A sharpshooter came whizzing by, and as the boy 
caught sight of me, he swerved to the right so sud- 
denly, that he went headfirst into a gully half filled 
with the loose snow blown in from a recent slight 
fall. 

“Halloo! Charlie, is that your usual way of turn- 
ing out?” I shouted, as he came hastily up the bank 
as white as though rolled in flour. 

He grinned a little, and shook himself lustily. 

“How’s Fred?” 

“Sitting up.” 

“And Jack?” 

“Better last night.” 


THE SUGAR THIEVES. 


x 93 


“ First-rate, isn’t it ? ” and his face shone with satis- 
faction. “Come up and have a go,” he added hos- 



L. 


A TURN-OUT. 

pitably. “Bert’s up here with Fannie Nason, as 
sleepy as an owl ; he was out by moonlight last even- 


194 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


ing, and now here he is at it again before breakfast, 
and she’s making no end of fun out of him.” 

“He won’t complain !” I laughed, “so it’s none of 
our biz; but is not that Katie Powers ? ” 

Charlie nodded a little grimly. “Yes, they’ve 
got her out at last; she’s grown as white as Jack 
himself with staying indoors. 

“ What do those girls see in that good-for-nothing 
Jim Long to admire?” he broke out suddenly, in a 
volcanic sort of way, as we trudged upwards. “ He’s 
a born coward, treacherous as an Indian, and no 
more idea of honor than a toad ! All he is is veneer 
— suave, sham! and a pretty face and the best sled 
in town. He walked up to Kate and Susie as indif- 
ferently! — and they are sliding with him now!” 

Long himself came up before I could reply; a 
decidedly good-looking fellow, although too broad- 
shouldered and short-legged for symmetry. 

“ Halloo, Tom ! what say to going over- to the other 
coast, and paying a friendly visit to Deacon Hay- 
ward’s sugar orchard ? Not the whole crowd, you 
know, just Kate and Susie, Bert, Fannie Nason and 
you two; sap ran well yesterday,” he added suggest- 
ively. “At any rate, we are going,” he added, as we 
did not assent. 

I made up my mind instantly. “All right!” I 


♦ 


THE SUGAR THIEVES. 195 

cried, swinging Charlie into the sled' before he could 
object. “One slide first!” and away we flashed, with 
a “Clear the lul-la,” through the crowd of reckless 
coasters. 

“Tom, what in time did you say that we would go 
for?” Charlie exclaimed angrily, the moment we 
stopped. 

“You heard him say the rest were going,” I 
remarked calmly. 

“Yes, and he’ll get them all into some rascally 
scrape yet!” he growled, looking up the hill with a 
frown. 

“Exactly; just why I consented.” 

“Oh, I see!” a light breaking on him. “You’ve 
been taking lessons of the Chief — it’s just what he’d 
have done. Trudge ahead — I’ll follow!” 

“Tom, Mr. Long says you would not dare venture 
into the Deacon’s sugar orchard if he hadn’t proposed 
it and led off,” laughed Susie a little maliciously as 
we came up, with an amused glance at her escort, 
who colored up as he met my rather sullen look. 

I had, as he knew, private reasons of my own for 
holding Master Jim to be anything but valiant; but I 
passed it off as a jest, and we all went on in a 
friendly way. 

Deacon Hayward was an elderly Quaker who had 


196 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


lately purchased a hill farm in the township, and of 
whom the boys were greatly in awe; for no good 
reason, though, that I could see. Just below the 
orchard of towering maples was a very long, very 
steep hill full of sharp pitches, and the broad 
meadow below was overflowed and frozen over. The 
coast was a dangerous one, and also tedious to climb, 
hence generally deserted by the coasters. They 
didn’t object so much to the danger, but they did dis- 
like to toil, puffing, up those roof-like pitches ; it was 
too much like work to be funny. We skirted the 
summit of the hill, and as I climbed the brush fence 
cautiously, I remarked, “Don’t go too far from the 
sleds, girls ; we may have to effect a change of base 
very suddenly.” 

“ Tom’s afraid, as you can hear for yourselves,” said 
Jim Long tauntingly; and then in a spirit of bravado 
he set up a shout that made the woods ring with 
echoes of “ Dea-con ! Dea-con ! Thieves, Deacon!” 

I did just ache to thrash that fellow! but I had 
promised Jack — well, never mind what; only I 
hadn’t touched him since the promise. 

The first buckets had little or no sap in them, and 
what there was was frozen; so we pushed some 
distance into the grove, the girls in their scarlet hoods 
flitting like red-headed woodpeckers from tree to tree 

















« 









THE SUGAR THIEVES. 


199 


in their search for kindred sweets. Jim was ahead, 
recklessly tossing every empty bucket far into the 
untrodden snow, and wrenching out sap spiles ; but 
he forgot to keep the lookout required of an advance 
post, and happening to glance ahead as he kicked 
high into a bucket at which he had had a long pull, 
he was thunderstruck at a terrible apparition. There, 
not three rods off, were the Deacon and Pelatiah 
Macomber, his hired man. 

For a moment the braggart was paralyzed. He 
evidently had had dealings with Pelatiah before. 
The “ hired man ” had his shovel with him, an 
implement for which he always had the tenderest 
affection, and which was always kept polished to 
mirror-like radiance. Jim glanced at Pelatiah, then 
at the shovel — he evidently had had dealings with 
that shovel also. And now the girls were here to see. 

With a yell of terror he darted through the woods 
like a pigeon, cleared the brush fence at a bound, 
jammed on his hat, and vanished toward the sleds. 
We had followed more moderately — there was time 
enough — laughing at the ridiculous spectacle of his 
fright, when Charlie sprang forward with an exclama- 
tion, “ The coward has run for it ! ” 

On the instant the rush of the sled proved his 
words. 


200 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


I hastily helped Susie over the fence, for the 
enemy were coming on the run after us luckless 
culprits. “ Down on it, quick, and be off ! ” pointing 
at Charlie’s sled. 

She sat down promptly, without a word, and 
tucked up her feet and dress. 

“ Pile on, Charlie ! ” giving him a shove before he 
had time to think ; and instantly they were spinning 
away over the brow of the hill! I drew a long 
breath ; they were safe from the Deacon’s grasp, at 
all events. 

Kate and Fannie came running up out of breath, 
looking doubtfully at Bert’s sled, now the only one 
left. It would hold but two for such a coast. 

“Yes; on with you, girls, quick! You can steer, 
Kate, can’t you ? ” 

“Yes, indeed!” 

“Tuck up that dress more — hurry — now then!” 
and with a quick, straight, strong shove, away went 
they, shooting down the slope and disappearing 
beneath the ridge of the first heavy pitch, Katie 
throwing one serio-comic glance over her shoulder, 
half-regretful, half-laughing, and then of necessity 
absorbed in her steering. 

The next breath Bert and I were in the hands of the 
Philistines ! and right angry Philistines they were too. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THE FATE of the captives (as recorded by Tom). 



ALL, I vum ! thet’s a leetle the smartest thing 


V Y I’ve seen yit!” puffed Pelatiah, returning from 
a fruitless chase after the fugitives, and taking Bert by 
the collar. The Deacon was gravely holding us each 
by an arm, in an iron grasp. 

Pelatiah was tall, and was thin, and was gawky. 
His apple-shaped head crowned a neck like a heron’s, 
while his rubicund nose glowed like a headlight in a 
murky night. His face was wrinkled, his teeth were 
stubby, and his mouth nearly made a peninsula of 
his head. He usually was on a broad grin, for he 
had no little sense of humor ; just at present he was 
wrathy. 

“ What sh’ll we du with these varmints, Deakin ? ” 
Pelatiah asked, giving Bert a savage shake, that 
brought a glimmer of steel into his eye. 


201 


202 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


The Deacon was busily stripping a birch sprout 
with one hand, and holding on to my ear with the 
other, two operations that required his concentrated 
faculties to bring to a successful accomplishment; 
hence he failed to catch the question, and the birch 
was steadily reaching perfection under my appre- 
hensive eyes. I seemed to feel it already, and could 
even speculate on the chances of leaving my ear in 
pawn for the sake of escape. A scientific twist of 
the Deacon’s solid fingers, however, nipped that idea 
in the bud. 

As the master was solving the question in his own 
way, the hired man proceeded to bring his captive 
over the knee of repentance after a certain fashion of 
old, but found it necessary, presently, in consequence 
of various struggles, to lay aside his precious shovel ; 
in doing this he unconsciously relaxed his hold upon 
Bert. That stalwart youth was burning red with 
shame. I caught a glimpse of his downward bent 
face, and, as the long-bodied hired man leaned for- 
ward with the slow and deliberate swing of a squarely 
hung well-sweep, I distinctly heard a short low laugh, 
and saw the victim as he gave a sudden twist and 
push, leaped forward with a celerity that even Fred 
Parker might have envied, snatched up the precious, 
polished shovel, and ere Pelatiah had picked him- 


THE FATE OF THE CAPTIVES. 


2 03 



BERT IMPROVISES A COASTER. 


self up, Bert was rods away down the hill, running 
like a deer. 

“Here! here! drop thet shov’l, you young imp of 
sin ! Le’ go ! Creation ! — Drop it, I sa-ay ! Great 
Ginger! ! — 


204 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


“Git off thet shov’J ! ! ! ! I” yelled the hired man., 
utterly aghast at the sudden turn of events, for, com- 
ing to the steepest pitch, Bert had dropped the bowl 
of the tool on the slippery crust, and while under full 
headway first jumped on, then cleverly stooped and 
sat fairly down in it ! and away he went skating down 
the hill at a terrific rate, the handle of the shovel 
sticking straight out in front like a bowsprit, ever and 
anon disappearing in a cloud of snow-dust. Unheed- 
ing Pelatiah’s frantic whoops, reckless of the dangers 
of the wild coast, his sole thought was to escape from 
the wrathful, long-legged Nemesis who came tearing 
down after him at a breakneck rate, to the immi- 
nent risk of his head. Swifter and swifter as each 
sharp decline increased his momentum, the keen air 
hurtled past his head. The snow-dust rose in clouds 
from his grinding heel, and drifted like a wraith 
along his wake. The shovel bowl grew warm beneath 
the friction — grew hot — and compelled him to 
stuff his coat tails beneath him, and even forced 
stern tears from his eyes as he shot on and on and 
on — past hollow after hollow, bounding up like a 
ball, coming down like a pile driver — till the laments 
of the far-distant Pelatiah grew faint, fainter, fainter 
yet and more broken, and his own speed began 
to slacken. 


THE FATE OF THE CAPTIVES. 


205 


Then he rose to his feet with a leap, cast one 
startled look over his shoulder backward, and made 
a bee line for the pond, as a hunted deer seeks the 
water. Dropping down upon the bank, he drew his 
club-skates from his pocket and fitted them on in a 
twinkling, and when the much-abused owner of the 
desecrated shovel reached the brink, he was already 
far away up the meadow in pursuit of the fleeing 
sleds, skimming along with quick, light strokes in 
the rosy flush of the morning. 

I sat down plump upon the snow at the Deacon’s 
feet and roared ! So did the Deacon ; that is, he 
roared, being too dignified to follow so unconven- 
tional an example further. In so doing he consider- 
ately let go of my ear. 

The sight of that animated hop-pole plunging 
down that hill of hills in hot and hopeless pursuit 
after a vanishing quantity, was more than all 
Quakerdom could stand, and tears of merriment 
rolled hopping down his round and hearty face till 
his modest shirt-collar grew limp and wet from sym- 
pathy. 

He quite forgot me. Also the birchen rod. I par- 
doned the neglect. I prayed most fervently that he 
might stay in that happy mood for just ten — nay, for 


206 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


five little minutes, as I rose quietly and tiptoed 
softly toward a clump of scrubby spruces. I reached 
them, and by a skilful flank movement gained the 
shelter of the woods. How long the Deacon stood 
there I do not know. At this date, I suspect until 
he thought I might be out of sight ; but from the 
moment that I had a tree between us I had abundant 
faith in my wood craft, and had not read Fenimore 
Cooper for nothing ! 

Making a wide detour, I crossed the valley and 
came up with the rest of the sugar thieves just in 
time to witness Bert giving Jim Long a sound thrash- 
ing with a bit of board, “ Pelatiah-fashion,” to his 
great grief and the infinite dismay of the girls. Not, 
as he remarked, for getting us into the scrape in the 
first place, but because having brought Kate and 
Susie into danger he had run like a coward and 
left them in the lurch to save his own precious 
skin ! Bert evidently had promised the chief no 
promises. 

The girls begged him off finally, their tender 
hearts stirred to pity by his mournful howls, and 
Bert dismissed him with the favorite injunction of the 
Millers — to go, and sin no more. 

He tried to keep it quiet, but the story spread, and 
it was weeks before our pretty-featured Jim dared to 


THE FATE OF THE CAPTIVE . 


207 


look any one in the face ; and the dandyism was 
completely shaken out of him. 

I met the Deacon the very next day, crossing the 



PELATIAH IS NOT TO BE CONSOLED. 


Common, and offered payment for the sap that we 
had drank and the trouble he must have had to reset 
the spiles and buckets. 


20 8 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


“ Do not trouble thy head about that ! ” he said 
with a hearty laugh, “ the amusement thy companion 
afforded me more than paid for what thee drank ; 
and if what I hear be true, thy leader hath expiated 
his low mischief ; also, if thee will come up to our 
home to-morrow night and bring the girls that thee 
got away so cleverly, we will have an honest, old- 
fashioned “ waxing,” such as my mother used to have 
fifty years ago ! and I will intercede for thy lively 
friend Bertram with Pelatiah.” And once more the 
old man smiled broadly at his recollections. 

We went ; but even the offer of a brand-new shovel 
was not sufficient to console Pelatiah, although with 
an air of long-suffering he forbore the vowed revenge ; 
and to this day any mention of “ Bertram ” brings forth 
a melancholy shake of the head, as to say that no good 
can ever come of a boy that would slide down hill 
on a shovel not his own, to escape a little whipping ! 

On the twentieth of June the Clubs met for the last 
time. Graduation day was on the morrow, and many 
of us were to leave Zethel immediately after. 

Kate and Susie were looking eagerly forward to 
Wellesley in the fall. Bert was bound for Bowdoin ; 
Zethel always has had one representative there from 
the earliest times, as student or professor. J ack meant 


A LAST VIEW OF THE OLD MILL. 209 
























































































































































































































THE FATE OF THE CAPTIVES. 


2 1 1 


to go also, but being ordered to a better climate, was 
to go to California with Charlie. Our dear Chief — 
we all knew he left his heart behind him in that little 
spot under the birches where the summer sunset 
strikes the green knoll. The flowers that grow there 
are found in but one other place in Zethel ; in Jack’s 
old garden. 

Fred could not go to college either, owing to that 
wild swim, and the time and health it cost him ; and a 
kind old uncle of mine found a place for him here in 
the city of books and spectacles ; and we often meet 
and talk over the old Club days ; and he tells me of 
the wise men that he meets and talks to daily, for he is 
“ scribe ” still. As for me, my uncle claimed me, and 
here I am, a broker “ to be ” ! 

But I am casting too far ahead of my fish ! 

That night the old mill counting-room was cleared 
of its accumulated rubbish, pictures were hung here 
and there among the trophies of chase and war, the 
furniture dusted, the astonished floor was swept, and 
andirons polished, and everything put in apple-pie 
order for the entertainment of the Petticoat Nine. 
The girls had never been there before, and it is little 
to say that they were delighted at the homelike 
cheeriness, the deftness of Fred as cook, and the 
facilities for washing dishes in the flume. 


212 


THEIR CLUB AND OURS. 


Yet it was a very sober time on the whole ; we 
were all looking forward with steady eyes into the 
future, not frightened by the outlook, nor yet rejoic- 
ing, but with a calm determination to make the most 
of what talents and advantages we had, without 
striving after what we could not have. We all of us 
had learned not to cry for the moon. 

So on the eve of parting we gathered around the 
fireplace as the cool evening fell, and, as the dark- 
ness lowered, and the mists crept up from the river 
and the firelight grew brighter and lit up the room 
with dancing visions, we talked long over our pros- 
pects, and painted our ideals in life and character 
without reserve ; and then in the moonlit door, clasp- 
ing hands in life-long amity and fealty, the two Clubs 
disbanded forever. 


























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